Now that we’re past the U.S. elections, many in retail are hoping that the holidays will be happy despite the tense year many have experienced. Thoughts of ongoing wars, inflation, and general economic uncertainty can start to take a backseat to the joy and glory of the Christmas and Hanukkah seasons.

At press time, manufacturers noted the financial prudence exercised by clients up to this point this year. “Our retailers are taking a cautious approach to the holiday season,” says Theresa Namie, merchandise manager, Ostbye. “It is an election year, which has many stores waiting on outcomes. That said, they are selecting items that are in a great price point, such as silver, and choosing everyday designs that can be layered and added on to create a collection.”

Marketing measures like good photography and creative promotional efforts and assets are key to spreading the word about all new offerings. Jewelry makers know to have ample tools available for merchants to drive desire for products—interest so strong that shoppers can’t resist gifting loved ones a piece of fine jewelry.

Take a page or two from the playbooks of some of the most directional jewelry manufacturers in the business by learning about the tools and tips they utilize to ensure that festivities are bright.

Seasonal Forecast

Forecasting agencies are already predicting increased holiday spending this year, which is welcome news to many merchants. Anecdotally, sales this year have been erratic because it is an election year, an event that historically leaves many shoppers in a state of uncertainty until a new president is elected.

Holiday sales increases may rise only slightly—between 2%–3%—and will be further impacted by a shorter season “with only 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” confirms Reuters. Plus, consumers have lower personal savings now and are still facing high prices for many consumer goods, which are “21.2% more expensive since the pandemic-induced recession began in February 2020,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then there’s the record-high price of gold, which affects everyone in fine jewelry.

LALI Jewels

These facts have led many jewelry manufacturers to offer value-oriented price points of less than $2,000 retail and looks like cluster styles that present a big bang for a consumer’s buck. In fact, cluster gemstone designs are among Shefi Diamonds’ holiday designs. Marketing Director, Surbhi Jain, says the brand is also anticipating healthy sales in textured gold and gemstone looks, all of which have been performing well for the firm thus far this year.

“These new offerings have resonated well with our customers,” she explains. “Price points between $299 and $999 have also shown strong sales performance. Products within this range tend to resonate well with customers and move quickly.”

According to LALI Jewels PeriLynn Glasner, design and marketing director, her merchants are bracing for heightened sales thanks to “new customer types from trunk shows and targeted marketing efforts.”

Glasner also anticipates moving more wintry colors (read: blue) this year as opposed to last, which were warmer hues. Also top of mind? Gemstones in a variety of colors and shapes. “These have become increasingly popular lately,” she says.

     Chatham

Meanwhile, color is the only category on the minds of clients for Chatham, a maker of lab-grown gemstones.

“We’re expecting to sell modern, unique, and fashion forward lab-grown color gemstone and lab-grown diamond fashion designs this holiday season,” explains Monica McDaniel, vice president of marketing. “These color and diamond fashion styles offer classic designs with modern twists. For example, some of these fine-jewelry pieces feature our exclusive gemstone cuts: the Onion, Flame, Elongated Baguette, and Century cuts. Additionally, we’ve incorporated fancy-cut diamonds into our color and diamond fashion collections for the first time. They add unique and luxurious details that will make the pieces stand out to holiday shoppers.”

Another silhouette on Chatham’s short list of hot sellers is the hexagon. See it in the maker’s Legacy Collection in lab-grown blue spinel.

Ostbye

Ostbye anticipates selling plenty of two-tone styles and sentimental designs including birthstones, initials, and symbols like hearts and crosses.

“These historically have done well for the holidays and will most likely be the same for this year,” reveals Theresa Namie, merchandise manager.

New for 2024 are engravable disc birthstone pendants and a hidden halo bridal ring.

“It’s available for different shapes and sizes of diamonds,” she continues. “We also did some fun paperclip layering necklaces with dangle earrings.”

Holiday Help

When retailers need a marketing boost in the fourth quarter, they will often look to their manufacturing partners for assistance. This is typically offered in the form of social media posts, email campaigns, and customizable artwork for the jewelry they’ve purchased. All tools are part of a brand’s portfolio of digital marketing services for good clients.

“We also offer displays, Duratrans, postcards, posters, and billboards, along with a comprehensive marketing booklet for reference,” says Surbhi Jain, marketing director, Shefi Diamonds.

It’s an extensive range of offerings that clients can see in a digital flipbook at their convenience.

LALI Jewels also offers a range of assistance that includes trunk shows as well as digital assets.

Shefi Diamonds

“We have numerous trunk shows scheduled for the holiday season,” reveals PeriLynn Glasner, design and marketing director.

To promote the events, LALI has postcards, lookbooks, and multiple social media posts weekly that retailers can share and reshare. Another tool in its arsenal is incentives and giveaways for both store staff and shoppers.

“We create marketing decks that help train our retailers to have successful trunk show events,” maintains Glasner.

Trunk shows are also top of mind for lab-grown jewelry maker Chatham, as are a host of other ways to help retailers boost business. Brand partners with a minimum of 3 square feet of cases featuring Chatham jewelry are entitled to use Chatham-produced social media content as well as media kits for marketing campaigns. Sales training of associates helps, too.

“The sales training not only educates our retailers on Chatham lab-grown gemstones but also explains how to sell color gemstones with color psychology,” says Monica McDaniel, vice president of marketing. “To supplement the many sales tools that accompany our jewelry displays, our website offers price comparison of Chatham jewelry with the mined stone equivalent. Sales professionals find this helpful to show shoppers that Chatham not only grows exceptional-quality gemstones but delivers them at a better price for their budget.”

Merchant support from Ostbye includes a holiday wish book and a flyer that “went to print this week,” says Theresa Namie, merchandise manager. “We create several social media images and Reels this time of year, and clients can also use our website as theirs with the store markup and logo.”

Chatham and Ostbye also help retailers with personalization for clients by providing customized CAD designs (Chatham has 15 lab-grown gemstones to shop), and both also offer incentives to retail staffers to sell.

        Ostbye

        

“We offer a spiff for our Silver Sparkle Lane collection,” says Namie. “If a sales consultant sells a certain amount of product, we give a wholesale discount for them. It’s an easy spiff to obtain and it is a fun collection to sell.”

Chatham holds an annual sales contest. “The more Chatham jewelry a salesperson sells, the greater the chance they will win more cash prizes at the raffle drawing,” explains McDaniel. “In total, we give away $25,000 in smaller cash prizes to help incentivize sales teams to sell Chatham. When they report their sales, this also helps our product analysts recommend jewelry with higher sell-through rates in their area.”

Picture These

Perhaps the most important part of marketing is the visuals! Luxury products are desirable on their own, but professional photography is important to share their appeal with an audience of collectors. Still life (product only), model photography, and videography provide the solid foundation on which powerful marketing campaigns are built.

Chatham

Customers of Chatham lab-created gemstone jewelry can utilize its predesigned ads to drive desire for its fine jewelry. Examples include an heirloom-quality Chatham jewel placed in imagery with a mother and her young daughter in an embrace and a couple at a romantic destination (think Eiffel Tower).

“Our most successful campaign to date is ‘Gems: the touchstones of life,’” says Monica McDaniel, vice president of marketing. “This campaign endorses the idea that [clients] can begin a family tradition with lab-grown gemstone jewelry that captures a special moment in time.”

Ostbye conducts several photoshoots annually that are adapted for Reels and other artwork. One example of an effective still life shot is a lone long red ribbon fashioned into the silhouette of a Christmas tree with different diamond stacking bands positioned as ornaments. It’s a graphic visual that’s used on three to five different channels to reach target audiences on social media, direct mail, interactive websites, and billboards.

“Omnichannel advertising is always the best,” says Theresa Namie, merchandise manager. “We also send eblasts and texts with social media posts to help them promote. On our website, if a design has had social media imagery done, it is shown with the item and can be downloaded.”

Ostbye

    

Still, don’t discount handheld (think paper) promotions. Ostbye has a paper holiday flyer along with its digital version.

“Consumers like something tangible to hold and review and circle what they like for a hint to loved ones in the privacy of their home that is not online,” observes Namie. “We will work with our customer to create artwork as they need for many different avenues of advertising.”

PeriLynn Glasner, design and marketing director for LALI Jewels, conducted a shoot recently that the brand will feature in a new lookbook, social media, and various marketing materials. Her key to a successful visual campaign?

“Something that’s not overly simple, yet genuinely eye-catching,” she explains. “Our lookbook from last year featured stunning photography of our products and models with our jewelry that truly impressed our customers. We are excited to make a new lookbook this year.”

Clients can see the fruits of her labor on social media and in lookbooks and postcards promoting events and new products.

And while Shefi Diamonds doesn’t produce model photography, it does offer seasonal artwork and product photography for use.

“We can supply images based on retailers’ specific requests,” says Surbhi Jain, marketing director.

Shefi Diamonds

Among the brand’s biggest visual productions is its 52-page holiday catalog featuring more than 500 jewels across 20 collections. The tome can be customized with a retailer’s name and features a wide range of 14k gold designs. Smaller print productions include a customizable 16-page booklet of jewels geared toward holiday gifting as well as an 8-page flyer promoting 10k gold jewelry.