How independent retailers and designers can create mutually beneficial partnerships

With consumers maintaining a watchful eye on their spending in today’s uncertain economy, conversations with independent retailers that are thriving in this climate reveal one common thread: All have forged tight relationships with the independent designers whose work they sell.

The partnerships are symbiotic: Designers get access to a store’s engaged, loyal customer base and benefit from retailers’ local marketing efforts. Retailers get unique merchandise and the cachet of the designer’s brand.

“With the smaller designers, we can be important to each other, and I think that benefits both of us,” says Julie Von Bargen Thom, co-owner of Von Bargen’s Jewelry, a retailer with four stores in Vermont and New Hampshire.

 

Complementary communications and collaborations boost sales:

Retailers and designers each know how to communicate with different subsets of customers.

Store owners have an intimate and in-depth knowledge of their local market. “The beauty of the independents is they really understand their customers,” says New York City–based designer Jade Trau, adding that they know which styles resonate and can quickly identify trends, pivoting if necessary. “They can evolve nimbly. They can buy smarter.”

Both designers and retailers market themselves, but their approaches and aesthetics differ. Designers are more likely to display their work in a fashion designed to appeal to a broader audience, Thom says. “When you get images from designers, they tend to be very stylized.” By contrast, “we do photo shoots probably once a month with models who are clients,” she says. “Our images feel very local and show the jewelry being worn in your everyday lifestyle.”

Paul Tacorian, chairman and CEO of Tacori, a bridal jewelry brand based in Glendale, Calif., also draws a distinction between retailers’ and designers’ marketing approaches. “It’s about creating awareness of what the brand of Tacori is on the national level,” he says. “On the retail side, it’s about creating awareness and calls to action in their marketplace.”

Ideally, these two efforts overlap in a way that broadens the reach of each brand without diluting either. “Designers who do their own marketing generally are a huge boost to us,” says Yael Reinhold Lipnik, president of Reinhold Jewelers, headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “We love it when they tag us” in their social media content, she says.

Coordinated promotions can reap rewards for stores and artisans, says Christina Baribault, partner at Baribault Jewelers in Glastonbury, Conn., a successful retail business that has partnered with brands like Tacori and Gabriel & Co. on exclusive offerings that they promote via in-store events. “We’re big believers in collaborations,” Baribault says.

A kindred spirit lurks in Kimberly Adams Russell, CEO of Frank Adams Jewelers in Albany, N.Y. “We love the connections we have with designers,” she says. At an annual event with Jade Trau, for instance, Frank Adams’ best customers get to meet the designer. “She wines and dines them, and spends time with them on a personal level,” Russell says. This deepens engagement and loyalty between the shoppers and both Russell’s store and Trau’s work. “I feel intimately connected to my customers’ customers,” Trau says.

Success means a willingness to negotiate trade-offs:

As in all relationships, clear and frequent communication along with a good-faith willingness to compromise are essential for success. “Exclusivity is a push-and-pull thing between designer and store,” says Megan Flynn, cofounder of M. Flynn Jewelry in Boston. “I need to convince them I’m the right fit.”

One common sticking point is a concern about cannibalizing sales. Stores want exclusivity, while designers, many of whom have launched e-commerce operations in the wake of the pandemic, benefit from making their products available as widely as possible.

With customers free to purchase via multiple sales channels, determining whom a sale “belongs” to can be a delicate question, especially for high-end pieces. “It can be a struggle feeling that out,” Lipnik says. “Our clients travel. They can shop anywhere, and they do.”

Both store owners and designers say that mutual trust and active communication go a long way toward preventing misunderstandings before they arise and negotiating those that do occur.

Trau says it’s important to establish geographical boundaries. “I’m mindful of protecting territories with small independents,” she says.

What this looks like will vary by jeweler and by market, but typically entails designers agreeing not to sell through competing stores within a certain mile-radius, statewide, or across a regional footprint.

Another tug-of-war can arise over the question of whether retailers buy or consign items. Designers almost universally prefer to have their work purchased rather than held on memo. Many retailers with close designer relationships feel the same.

Having a representative selection of a designer’s stylistic vision makes for a more compelling marketing message, according to retailers. “We mostly purchase and don’t do consignment,” Lipnik says. “We want to buy enough that we can tell your story.”

Thom is of the same mind. “We don’t do a ton of consignment,” she says. “If it doesn’t have enough buy-in on our end, you don’t get the cream of the crop in terms of the selection. These designers make a living, and it’s important that we contribute to that.”

How to ensure a good fit:

Retailers must consider a number of criteria when evaluating potential designers to stock.

Key among them is making sure a designer’s aesthetic complements, rather than competes with, a store’s existing inventory. “We need to believe that it’s going to add business to our current business as opposed to taking money from a different designer that we already represent,” Thom says.

Baribault says diversification among her designers is a top consideration. “We choose them by noticing a need that’s not being met in our store, such as a price point or a look.”

A designer’s production schedule, flexibility, and willingness to help stores with special requests are all good signs, retailers say. For small stores that reorder goods frequently, owners say they prefer to stock designers who can guarantee quick delivery. “Our designers are on a six- to eight-week turnaround,” Thom says. “I’d rather be reviewing inventory and merchandising frequently as opposed to doing huge orders very rarely.”

As a designer, Trau says a perk for retailers working with small designers is the ability to tailor their merchandise with greater precision. “We can work to build assortments that are genuine to what they can actually sell” based on that retailer’s knowledge of its customers’ tastes and budgets.

Lipnik looks for designers who want long-standing relationships. “When we commit to a designer, we really do view them as family, so we choose carefully,” she says.

Prioritizing relationships that stand the test of time is at the core of what independent retailers do best.  “It’s not just about the profit,” Tacorian says. “It’s about the longevity of their store. A reason they continue to thrive is they’re there to create customers for life.” This shared value, he explains, is a major reason why stores and designers can forge such tight bonds—to their mutual benefit.

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