Gina discusses the wedding boom, inflation and Russian Diamonds
At Signet, we ask ourselves a fundamental question every day: Everyone feels love, so why shouldn’t everyone be able to express it?
Signet's proprietary research shows that Gen Z and Millennials are reaching milestones in their lives, and are two groups wanting more and more to celebrate their lives and express their loves in different and unique ways. Which is why our CEO, Gina Drosos, recently took the story of our transformation to Cheddar’s Closing Bell.
The streaming show is frequented by younger audiences, particularly Millennials, a group likely growing their interest in all things that sparkle, as they’re getting married or even splurging on themselves.
Below are five takeaways you may have missed from Gina’s interview on Cheddar’s Closing Bell.
Trends for the Jewelry Consumer
Retail is an ever-changing
industry, and 2022 already boasts its own ebbs and flows impacting the jewelry
consumer. Here’s how Gina characterized her top three trends:
- A boom in weddings –
“We know the average time between when people meet and when they get married is
three years. But the pandemic has disrupted weddings a bit. People weren't able
to have a big wedding over the last couple of years. They couldn't invite all
of their friends or families. So that's pushed more weddings into this year
than we've seen historically. Usually there between 1.8 million weddings. This
year, there will be over 2.5 million weddings.”
- Hybrid work environment –
“People can't always see your shoes, they can't see your great new bag, but
they can definitely notice the jewelry that you're wearing. Jewelry is a
purchase to express yourself. People are excited to do that again both in person
at the workplace and in virtual meetings.”
- Lab-created diamonds – “It's
not a big part of our business yet, but it certainly is fast growing. And lab-created
diamonds are another way that customers are finding great value in an inflation
year.”
Delighting Customers Despite Inflationary Pressures
The conversation pivoted to a popular topic for shoppers today: inflation. Gina described why Signet is positioned to delight jewelry customers despite inflationary pressures in the economy:
“We're very conscious of wanting to make sure that we're providing a great value to our customers. We have a banner portfolio that includes Kay, Zales, Jared, Banter by Piercing Pagoda, James Allen, and Diamonds Direct, that allows us to have a good, better best strategy in terms of our pricing. We have quite a bit of scale with our vendor partners and we're able to value engineer products for customers so they can always count on getting the best value at one of our banners.”
Suspending purchases of Russian diamonds
Gina also addressed what went into the company’s decision to suspend purchases of Russian diamonds following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
“It was an easy decision and a hard decision. The easy part is that our purpose as a company is inspiring love, and we know that the conflict in Russia and Ukraine has nothing to do with inspiring love. As soon as that conflict happened, we immediately stopped the purchase of Russian diamonds and instructed all of our vendors to do the same. Every customer can know that if they buy diamonds from any of our banners, those diamonds were not sourced from Russia after the conflict began.
"The hard part is that 30 percent of the world's diamonds come from Russia. Thankfully we have the scale, partnerships and relationships that we've been able to pivot and be agile. We didn't see any loss of stock for Mother's Day. We don't expect to see it for Holiday – we will again be stocked and staffed. So we've been able to use our agility to make sure that we could shift our supply chain.”
The feeling of buying jewelry
Business decisions such as stopping the purchase of Russian diamonds or leading in diversity, equity and inclusion may go unnoticed by many customers, so why bother? It boils down to building trust with our customers when they make such an important purchase:
“The purchase of a piece of jewelry, and especially an engagement ring, can be a little frightening for people. It’s not something they do every day. They really want the proposal to go well and they want to get a great value. So I want them to feel comfortable, I want them to know their purchase is making a good difference in the world, which we do through our products.
“We are very philanthropic as a company and so I think they can feel good about buying from us. We're a leader and responsible sourcing. We’re also a leader in sustainability, so customers can know that we're working on positive things for the environment and really leading the charge for the jewelry industry.”
Signet’s transformation, led by culture
Finally, Gina offered how Signet’s cultural transformation
is fueling competitive advantages for the business:
"It's been both a cultural and a strategic transformation.
I think culture is even more important. We've been putting a big focus on
diversity, equity and inclusion – making sure all of our team members feel like
they can bring their best ideas and their best selves to work. I think that's
helped us see around the corner. We've been able to predict trends and jewelry
before they happen. We've really been out in front of improving our website
performance and our digital marketing using our data. I think that's because
we've made diversity of business strategy.”
Watch the full interview on Cheddar.com.
Learn more about Signet’s Inspiring Brilliance strategy.