Stuller Interiors, the retail design arm of the Stuller brand, played a major role in the creation of Schmitt Jewelers, which was crowned 2014 LUXURY Retailer of the Year at JCK Las Vegas last week. 

The Phoenix-based store consulted with Stuller on its recent redesign and bears many of the hallmarks of next-generation retailing Stuller endorses—including front-loading displays for consumers, a touch table, a glass wall showcasing bench jewelers, open-selling displays, and touch screens designed for tandem custom designing with consumers.

Stuller Interiors consulted with Schmitt Jewelers in Phoenix—winner of the 2014 LUXURY Retailer of the Year award.

“We’re all about making sure the layout of the store is conducive to doing business in a way you’ve never done before,” says Jim Froeschle, account executive for Stuller Interiors. A large part of that mission, he adds, boils down to creating opportunities for side-by-side selling. “We want the staffer to come out from behind the counter.”

Stuller’s recommendations for interiors also included integrating bar stools instead of chairs—because it’s less effort to get shoppers to lean into a stool than to bend low into a chair—and providing consumers with opportunities to handle merchandise whenever possible. “You go into an Apple store, you go into a Sunglass Hut…and you’re touching and feeling; it’s very interactive,” says Froeschle. Touch screens on walls and embedded into counters add to a sensory environment.

Froeschle says retailers too often hide their bench jeweler, when the skilled craftsmanship of jewelry fabrication is one of the most compelling reasons to spend money on it. “If a bench jeweler is in the store, he needs to be very visible,” he notes. 

The company turned its attention to refurbishing independent jewelry stores around five years ago—a decision that led to the creation of so-called 302, a 1,500-square-foot lab store built at Stuller to the exacting specification of its Interior team. “We were really trying to get a grip on Gen Y and what they need and want in a jewelry store,”  says Froeschle, “and we came up with design [recommendations] that are really research based.” 

The Stuller-designed J. David Jewelry store in Broken Arrow, Okla. 

Emili Vesilind

JCK Senior Editor