Report by ICA Ambassador to Canada
Report by ICA Ambassador to Canada
Hello ICA members!
Here is the news from Canada!
Considering what we went through last spring, we consider ourselves quite lucky this summer.
We are a small/medium family business selling to jewelers/goldsmiths located mostly in Canada and slowly a little more often abroad.
All of our clients have told us that this summer feels like Christmas. Who would have thought?
The reasons are as follows:
1. Our government has provided a lot of financial help to the majority of the population who have needed help.
2. Most of the potential clients buying jewelry worth $3,000 to $8,000 are teleworking, including: Doctors, Accountants, Lawyers, Engineers, etc.…They never stopped working. They have money to spend, especially since they don’t travel, and they don’t go out much to restaurants, theaters, etc. Then, they don’t really buy expensive clothes. So, I guess jewelry is a dream that can come true.
3. When they step into a store (not just for jewelry but also for any other goods) it’s to buy, not to shop around.
4. Another interesting observation is that people WANT to buy local. Encourage the Canadian market and the company they trust.
As I’ve mentioned in your previous newsletter, we’ve received many parcels on memo from our fantastic gems suppliers (ICA members of course!). That was amazing. So, we try to promote these gemstones as much as we can on Instagram. This is a free tool and it has allowed us to sell in the USA, Brazil, and Singapore.
We did the same with our best customers – and sent parcels on memo. We know what they like and try to meet their needs. We try to communicate a lot with them. (We sometime do zoom meetings to do so). It’s part of good service. They are very grateful!
We won’t be able to go on our usual selling trips, so everything has to be done differently. We need to adapt as creatively and as business oriented as possible.
The jewelers that sold online did okay during the confinement. But I would say with medium to low price range pieces only. And I think more people will sell online. We don’t sell online, but we have a good website with all the photos of our collection. We found that jewelry is still very much sold in store. And people like to see the gemstones in person.
I think in these days we need to work harder and distinguish ourselves with the best possible service so people think about us. We’re learning a lot from this situation and it’s a great feeling because the results are there.
We understand this busy time might be temporary. We have no idea of what’s coming for Fall and Winter.
But we need to take all the good news when it arrives!