During a diamond trade-up event in all of Sissy’s locations, for example, sales associates became so invested in helping the shoppers select a mounting that none of them remembered to show any of the 2-carat loose diamonds the shoppers had asked to see.

From the beginning, Sissy’s training program had been based on having new salespeople learn the ropes organically from Bill himself, but as the business acquired more locations, that learning process was slowing down to the point it would take a trainee two years to get up to full speed. In addition to five Arkansas locations, Sissy’s also has a store in Memphis.

“Bill had an amazing training program, but it was based on him being around all the time,” says William Jones IV, who had the good fortune, he says, to be trained his whole life by the best, including his dad, Bill, and his grandmother and company founder Sissy Jones.

When William took over the company’s training program two years ago, he was also stymied by geography, spending as many as eight hours a week simply traveling between locations. So he introduced Sissy’s Log Cabin University, based on a series of online courses that helps associates learn the basics of the company’s culture, sales techniques and even gemology. “We started recording our classes and sending them to a store and it worked extremely well,” William says.

It began as an onboarding program so that new hires would complete six hours of classes before they even started working.

He also began incorporating those improv actors who were secret shoppers into the in-person training program to foster relationship building, conversational skills and to ensure that associates can think on their feet.

The entire training program is based on the concept that the jewelry business is experience-based. Customers walking into one of Sissy’s locations may not understand that in order to see and learn about all those products under glass, they need to build a relationship with someone who can show them around. The sales associate, then, must know how to begin to establish that relationship smoothly and to eradicate any potential tension. That’s why monthly improv
training helps build confidence.

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“What we found out is that when you’re on the sales floor, you can get in uncomfortable situations,” William says. “Improv training is designed to put you in a state where you’re nervous and uncomfortable and you can practice what to do in those situations.” William says that the idea behind the training program is that it’s always better to have 10 returning customers than 10 new customers, so why not ensure every initial encounter leads to a regular client? Price wars aren’t necessary once loyalty is established.

Since introducing the new, formalized training system, Sissy’s has seen what Bill and William describe as remarkable improvements in closing not only engagement ring sales but diamond fashion as well. In order to sell diamond fashion pieces, in particular, sales skills are vital because clients may not have a good idea of what they want.

“I wish I could take credit,” William says. “But all I did was package this. It is what I grew up learning as I grew up in the business. It takes every ounce of training to operate an experience-based store.”

Sissy’s has begun to make their training program available to other stores, which may not have the resources to develop their own in-house training programs.

It’s branded as Jewelers Sales Academy.

“The question I’m asked most,” Bill says, “is why would I share my secrets? But these aren’t secrets. These are things we have forgotten in retail. This is what everybody used to do. It’s all about relationships, going back to the basics of how to treat people and read body language. How to clientele.

“As the tides rise, all boats rise. We want to make the industry a better place for all.”

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Zadok launched @zadoktime in February 2022 after it had become clear that Zadok Jewelers’ main Instagram account, focused on jewelry and diamonds, had an audience that was 90 percent female, and that the guys, particularly the watch collectors, were tuning out. “Watch guys would follow for a while and then stop,” Zadok says. “If we’re showing 95 percent jewelry and diamonds, the guys who are watch aficionados or watch geeks, they didn’t want to see that.”

Zadok Time’s content is often playful and humorous, and it has organically captured the attention of everyone from celebrity watch collectors and professional athletes to executives from prestigious timepiece brands.

Gilad Zadok

Before becoming marketing director of Zadok Jewelers in Houston, Zadok trained in improv and sketch comedy at the Groundings Theater in West Hollywood and attended the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television for a graduate program in feature film producing and screenwriting. He also worked as a production assistant, both as a freelancer and for producers/directors/screenwriters Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz at the Bedford Falls Company in Santa Monica.

The Instagram tone can be humorous but can’t go too far since Zadok is representing not only the family business but also the Zadoks’ watch brand partners.

“When you make a reel, you have to use different audio to get more reach,” he says. “Sometimes they’re funny, and there may be a curse word in there, but I know who my audience is.”

Because Zadok uses his own distinctive voice and point of view, viral possibilities seem limitless.

While attending the March 2022 trade show Watches and Wonders in Geneva, Zadok learned that Bulgari had just released the thinnest mechanical watch ever made. After he posted a photo of it, notifications on his phone went “nuts.” Within a year, that post had garnered 550,131 likes and reached 27.4 million accounts.

“I was born and raised in this business,” he says. “I have a perspective and a lifelong experience with brands. An industry insider perspective. I sit with the CEOS, I sit with the presidents, the head of Cartier North America.” He has conversations and sees products that are well out of the scope of most people’s experience.

His efforts have brought awareness to Zadok’s as an elite watch destination. “People started reaching out and asking if that watch were available, or when are you getting those in, and I’d wind up on the phone talking with watch collectors,” he says. “We see a lot of traffic coming from our website to our Instagram. I constantly hear feedback.”

As director of marketing, Zadok had stepped into a hands-on social media role often enough to know his watch account would be a major commitment. “It’s a machine,” he says. But his background in film and television saves time when he’s editing and creating content. “I have a passion for it and it comes out,” he says. “It’s also storytelling, and with my film background, creativity comes into it. I enjoy myself, and so I can find time for it.”

Zadok works with his parents, Zadok founders Dror and Helene; his wife, Lisa; two brothers, Jonathan and Segev; and sisters-in-law Amy and Michelle. Of the three Zadok brothers, he’s the creative one, he says. “That’s just my brain,” he says. “That’s how I view the world.”

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He’d been wearing a hat with ear flaps, a surgical mask, hiking boots and a coat, none of which was all that unusual for Vermont. But he had unusually red hands. There was also a picture. “We were all on alert,” Dumont says.

Not long after, on Dec. 13, Dumont saw a man who fit the description enter the store, but he was wearing a different hat and coat and his hands were not immediately visible. “I just said to my team be alert and grab your cellphones,” Dumont says.

The sales staff showed him one piece of jewelry at a time. When Dumont could see that his hands were red, she called the police, but they weren’t able to respond based on a suspicion.

“He said he needed to look at the piece closer to the window, near the front of the store. We said that wasn’t allowed, and he just walked out with it,” she says.

It been an excruciatingly tense 11 minutes. “The store was full of people, and then one person after another kept coming in, and we had to go through the motions while this other thing was in the back of our heads.”

They began locking the door, but the next day they let in a man without hat or surgical mask. A closer look revealed he had red hands. The police did respond this time, but he left when they wouldn’t let him hold anything and was at another store within five minutes. “Because he came back without a hat or mask, our video camera got a great image of him.” Police circulated the photo; not only was he arrested, but more jewelry from other stores was recovered than anyone realized had been stolen.

When the Von Bargen piece was returned to Dumont, who had designed it herself, store management decided to raffle it off to benefit the Howard Center’s Church Street Outreach Team, a local organization for mental health.

“As soon as we got it back, we decided we wanted to create some positivity out of a really terrible day,” she says. The stolen piece is an 18K yellow gold medallion on a long chain, with baguette and white brilliant cut diamonds flush set into it, valued at $4,550. Tickets were sold for $50, and limited to 150 to make it more appealing to people, but when the local TV station picked up the news, those tickets sold out in less than 24 hours, raising $7,500.

“The Church Street Outreach Team has been a great resource to us throughout the years,” Dumont says. “Whenever we’re confronted with individuals suffering from mental health issues, we call them. They work to keep our community safe.”

Local TV stations continued to follow the story. “All contributions by donors, by folks in the community, are really an investment in our community,” Howard Center’s Denise Vignoe told WCAX TV in Burlington. The Church Street Outreach Team provides resources to downtown merchants, but they also check in on Vermonters struggling with homelessness, substance abuse or mental health issues. They provide things like sleeping bags and tents, which are where the proceeds from the raffle will go.

The store had had a security meeting just weeks before with a police officer who worked in security for a bank. Dumont said it was frightening to be in the store twice with a suspected thief, but that the recent training session had helped reinforce important concepts.

“It was a good reminder that there is literally nothing you can do except get through it,” she says.

“We tend to think if we do X, Y and Z, this won’t happen to us or if we do X, Y and Z, we will be able to stop the person. Knowing there is nothing you can do takes away the pressure. Just get the person out of the store, let them take what they want and support each other after.”

Dumont and a group of local jewelers now keep in touch via text and are considering holding an annual jewelry raffle to benefit local organizations. “Giving back to our community has always been a part of our mission and something we feel fortunate to be able to do,” she says.

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WHEN MATTHEW GROSS first visited San Miguel de Allende in Mexico last year, he fell in love with it, and like many Americans before him, he quickly began to factor it into his retirement plans.

“It’s a pretty magical place,” says Gross, owner of MHG Jewelry Studio in Berkley, MI. “I was ready to sell everything and to move there.”

It also inspired him to imagine what he can do to bolster a fledgling community of local jewelry makers in a scenic city with Spanish-colonial architecture while spending some time away from Michigan’s frigid winters.

Gross is in the process of building a non-profit organization within the U.S. jewelry community to help San Miguel’s jewelers obtain much-needed tools and equipment and to elevate training.

Jesus Villaverde Fuentes teaches both in his home studio, at right, shown with his wife, Alejandra, and his students, and at the Instituto Allende, above.

While San Miguel is a well-known artist’s community, the jewelry trade remains rudimentary, Gross says. “Ninety percent of the jewelry stores are a little hole in the wall, and there’s a showcase and maybe a guy is working on the bench behind it,” he says. “They make it work with whatever they have.”

Jesus Villaverde Fuentes, who leads one effort to teach the jewelry arts in San Miguel, built his kiln out of parts recovered from trash, used a 5-power magnifying glass instead of a microscope and taught himself hand-engraving with a less-than-optimal engraver before meeting Gross last year. “The skills that they’ve learned are very, very basic, which they’ve done very well with, but we have a lot to give,” Gross says. “They need better skills, better equipment. It’s a struggle to make a living. With the right tools, you never know what someone can do.”

To date, Gross has received tool and equipment donations from Tapper’s Fine Jewelry in Michigan, AU Enterprise, Blaine Lewis of the New Approach School for Jewelers in Tennessee, and Charlotte Kearney, VP for product development at Gesswein, among others. He also raised money through a GoFundMe page to ship 500 pounds of equipment from Michigan to San Miguel. The crate also contained gemstones, findings and beads.

The focus of initial efforts has been to provide help to Villaverde, who teaches at the art school jewelry department of San Miguel’s Instituto Allende and has his own teaching studio for children, where he lives with his family and also sells vegetables and fruit.

Matthew Gross, right, is helping to equip instructor Jesus Villaverde Fuentes.

Ultimately, Gross would like to raise $500,000 to $1 million to refurbish the jewelry school, invite U.S. jewelers to teach master classes there, and to create a co-op studio, where graduate students could rent affordable space to launch their businesses.

Already, after Villaverde received the first shipment, progress is being made. Gross used FaceTime to teach him how to use the ultrasonic and the magnetic tumbler he sent. Now Villaverde has a microscope, a rolling mill, push engravers and has taught himself hand-engraving. He sends photos and videos of his progress to Gross, who says, “The skill level has gone way up.”

Gross is bringing other jewelers with him to San Miguel this winter to promote the effort and assess the community’s needs. This time, he plans to stay a month. “I asked friends in the business, and they said count me in,” Gross says.

Changing even one life at a time can have cumulative effects, he believes.

“It will be interesting to know that if Jesus does better financially, then he can give his daughter a better opportunity. Who knows what she’ll do. She might change the world. That’s the exciting thing for me; what will happen when I’m out of the picture.”

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Paul Altieri, CEO, bought the company from Bob Thompson 12 years ago. To avoid confusion, “people just call me Bob,” he says. “It worked out better because everyone in the company answers to Bob. It’s corny, but it’s memorable. If it were Paul’s Watches, it would be all about me.”

Bob’s Watches is an online marketplace where watch enthusiasts can buy, sell and trade pre-owned and vintage timepieces, particularly Rolexes.

Paul Altieri

Expected 2022 revenues are $120 million.

Altieri is one of the nation’s largest private collectors of vintage and modern Rolex watches, a passion born at age 14 when he got a job as a caddy at a private golf club. “The cool guys who were successful and smart wore Rolex,” he says. “A lot of them were good golfers, too. I always said if I make it, someday I’m going to buy a Rolex watch.”

Altieri had worked in jewelry retail, real estate, financial services and the restaurant business. When he turned his entrepreneurial gaze to the Internet about 15 years ago, he explored possible options for ventures that ranged from candy and flowers to women’s shoes and diamonds.

“And we kept coming back to watches,” he says. “It was a very expensive item that could fit in a box and we could ship it anywhere. It was a gigantic industry, it was important and it wasn’t being done right.”

The pre-owned watch market, he says, lacked a solid formula for ensuring consumers received a fair price for their used watch. By disclosing the true market value, including both the “buy” and the “sell” price for each watch, Altieri brought a new level of transparency to the transaction.

Doing it right involves not only pricing it right but authenticating every watch and offering exceptional customer service. “People come to us because they know they can trust us,” he says.

And they’re reliably available. They show up.

“A lot of companies will put up a website and hide contact information,” he says. “They don’t want to be bothered. We don’t feel that way. We get 6,000 phone calls a month and 300 inquires by email every day. Old school meets new school. They still call us or chat with us. It’s not a nuisance.”

Altieri employs 48 people, including 10 sales reps who take those calls and respond promptly to chat, text and email. “We like to get back to people quickly,” he says. “That’s our DNA. Speed. Sometimes they will order a watch today and have it by 10:30 the next morning. It can be that quick.”

Another old-school touch is hosting in-person events at the company’s headquarters in Newport Beach, CA, including an intimate collectors dinner catered by gourmet chef GTG.

Although the business is conducted online, live help is readily available via chat, phone, text or email.

The advent of smartwatches has made a Rolex no less powerful a symbol among a growing demographic of guys ages 28 to 60 ready to spend an average of $11,000 on a timepiece. Narrowing down that demographic further, 34 to 40 is the sweet spot.

“They’ve graduated college, got an MBA, got married, hit a homerun. They’ve done something successful, and they want to memorialize the event. It’s been historically a terrific investment. We call it the disease. Once you get the watch disease, it gets under your skin, and you want more of them,” says Altieri.

Bob’s Watches deals in eight to 10 brands. But Rolex represents 75 percent of the secondary watch market and 29 percent of the primary market.

Altieri ships anywhere FedEx delivers.

“I was kind of late to the Internet game, but I couldn’t believe how powerful a medium it could be,” he says, “And we’re just getting started. The market is enormous, domestically and internationally, and we’re not in the second or third inning yet. We’re excited that we got an early start.”

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He’s always been a proponent of training, working with the Edge Retail Academy and hosting jewelry industry sales-training superstars. He wanted to supplement their astute business advice and motivational powers with a consistent program he could deliver to his staff in small, easily digested bites they could refer to later.

When he discovered trainer Jimmy DeGroot’s video subscription service, he saw it as a way to make training an integral part of weekly staff meetings.

DeGroot, who works with trainer Brad Huisken, records one 10-minute training session each week and charges retailers between $99 and $199 a month, depending on staff size. Woodard has found the concise nature of these training videos, combined with the fact he can easily request or access videos on any topic, to fit well into his staff’s time-crunched schedule.

Woodard and store manager Blair Rogers plan weekly discussions with the staff of 15 around the videos. “The thing that is so helpful is that there are times you need a person other than yourself advising your team,” he says. “Jimmy is just so genuine and doesn’t seem to be overly pushy.”

JImmy DeGroot adds music to the message.

DeGroot, a former retail jeweler, hadn’t planned to launch a video training business. After leaving retail, he became a partner in a video production studio and invested $100,000 in video equipment.

A decade ago, Brian Rasmussen of Bay Area Diamond Co. in Green Bay, WI, asked DeGroot if he would visit his store for sales training. Looking around at his video equipment, DeGroot instead suggested recording a short video for the team every week focusing on one topic.

“They can work on that one item per week, and by the end of the year, they will have concentrated on 52 best practices for sales.”

From that spark of inspiration, the Jewelry Store Training Institute (trainretail.com) was conceived, which DeGroot has since expanded into other areas of retail. Membership includes access to 540 10-minute training videos that can be viewed as needed. Each year, beginning
Nov. 1, new releases are holiday themed.

There’s a basic training series for new hires that includes how to take in a repair, dress properly and show up for work on time, among other relevant themes.

It’s something anyone can easily absorb, no matter their personality or learning style, DeGroot says. “I’m a hyperactive person anyway,” DeGroot says, “So sitting in a room for more than 15 minutes, I get antsy and retention goes way down. The modality of people sitting in a conference room for hours and getting a tsunami of information just does not work for everyone.”

DeGroot says his method has worked for retailers who want to supplement current initiatives as well as those who don’t believe they have the time, money or energy for training. DeGroot cautions that whether retailers choose his program or that of another trainer, now is not the time to ignore education.

Since moving into his 4,800 square-foot destination store in 2019, Woodard’s business has leaped by 40 percent and he’s seen about 100 new customers in the store every month. He gives DeGroot credit for at least half of that growth, both as a trainer and “sounding board.”

“I would give Jimmy high marks for getting me to where I am today,” Woodard says. “It was a big decision to come out of the mall and go into a freestanding building or stay where I was.

I consider Jimmy to be key in helping me make some critical business decisions.”

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That’s the thing. Piercing parties are attracting a new, younger, edgier, more unpredictable clientele to Either Ore and to other Aurelie Gi clients, including Stratton Jewelry in Huntsville, AL. At Either Ore Jewelers, clients reserve their spot with a deposit but pay only for the jewelry; there’s no piercing fee. “This whole new network of clients, you can’t put a price on that,” Masciangelo says. “Charging a piercing fee doesn’t make sense.”

Stratton Hobbs is a fan.

Stratton Hobbs, owner of Stratton Jewelry, says piercing parties are tailor-made for independent jewelry stores, which have the opportunity to elevate the experience as well as the jewelry itself.

“If you’re trying to grab that younger generation, this is the way to do it,” she says. “They can bring their girlfriends or their moms and have a fun day out. Moms love it. It makes them feel young and trendy, and they get to do something fun with their daughter that’s going to last forever. And that’s what jewelry is all about.”

While Masciangelo is surprised by what her new clients are buying, her mom, Donna Firestone, owner of the family business, is shocked by how easy it has been to sell out these events on Instagram, a free marketing medium, after she spent much of her career spending thousands on traditional print advertising. “It blows her mind,” Masciangelo says. “I posted it and we were booked up within an hour.”

The jewelry brand Aurelie Gi brought the piercing parties to Stratton Jewelry, Either Ore Jewelers and other select clients in 2021 after they introduced the concept at the Atlanta Jewelry Show in 2020.

Katherine Whitacre, U.S. sales director for Chic Pistachio, parent company of Aurelie Gi and Ania Haie, says the brand developed a line of earrings for new piercings after she recognized a need, not only in the market, but for herself, for stylish, 14K gold pieces, since they must be worn for months until the ear heals. “There’s a trend for multiple earrings and the curated ear, and that starts with a piercing,” she says. “I personally didn’t have many options for earrings. I want diamonds. I want something pretty, not a titanium stud.”

The earring line is designed to be used with needle piercing, which is safer, less traumatic and more accurate than “gun” piercing. The process also takes more time, allowing the store owner and piercer to develop a relationship with the customer that goes beyond the usual earring sale. “With gun piercing, they’re using a $20 to $40 base metal or stainless steel earring, and the earrings are not super cute,” says Alisa Bunger, Chic Pistachio’s VP of sales and operations. “By using the needle piercing, stores are seeing much higher sales. People do multiple piercings. We’re talking about earrings that are $100 to $300 retail. That’s a much larger sale overall.”

(Left) Piercing parties at Either Ore and (right) Stratton Jewelry.

It’s turned out to be an excellent repeat business for many retailers, Bunger says. “Everyone’s looking to find ways to bring in the Gen Z customer base. They find they have people who get addicted and want to have more.”

By popular demand, Hobbs continues to host both piercing parties (for ears and noses) and the equally popular events for “zapping” permanent 14K gold bracelets onto wrists.

With 20 piercings of her own, Hobbs is one who embraces the trend. “The piercing parties, no one is doing that around here. It’s very important to me to mix the edginess of piercings with fine jewelry because that is literally who I am. Women who want piercings may not want to go to a tattoo shop or get an earring from Spencer’s. They want a nice piece of jewelry.”

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When company president Joe Corey took the issue to Day’s customers, support for the proposal was nearly universal. Customers were asked, “Would you support Day’s jewelers closing on Sundays, and if we did close would you shop elsewhere?” Of 1,000 responses, 92 percent vowed to stay loyal.

Customers appreciated being asked and were impressed that Day’s cared to make work-life balance a priority.

Day’s Jewelers employs 140 with eight stores in Maine and New Hampshire. At some locations, leases required them to be open seven days, but the company was able to obtain exceptions to that rule.

TOP: New Day’s employees gather to discover the history of the company and enjoy a day filled with activities. BOTTOM: South Portland team members gather for a group photo.

Because the company is employee-owned, Day’s distributed a financial analysis to ensure everyone realized that closing Sundays could affect revenues. Eighty percent of employees still voted to close. And since the change went into effect in July, revenues have risen, due perhaps to positive publicity about the decision. It’s also simplified scheduling since six day weeks are more flexible.

Day’s has long made a point of regularly soliciting feedback from staff. One method is to encourage the use of both virtual and physical suggestion boxes.

Employees also complete an extensive survey each year as part of the entry process for the “Best Places to Work in Maine” contest. For seven years, Day’s has been deemed one of the best places to work in Maine based on employee responses to questions about company culture, leadership, their level of satisfaction and a variety of HR-related criteria. Best Places to Work recognizes 100 businesses each year who go above and beyond to give their employees the best possible work environment and experience.

Day’s surveys its employees internally, too, to discover what drives them, what makes them happy, and what might tempt them to leave. “Since our employees are the company’s greatest asset, it’s very important for us to ensure we do everything we can to support their needs while also keeping our customers’ confidence and trust in us,” Corey says.

Day’s will open on Sundays during December, and staff may work occasionally on Sundays for special events, inventory management or team building.
Elisabeth Hebert, Augusta, ME, store manager, says the new schedule has allowed her team to gather outside of the store. “We’ve added some new faces to our Augusta store, and for that reason, we recently chose a Sunday for my entire team to take the day to go axe-throwing for a team outing,” she says. “It was nice to just let loose, have some fun and get to know each other on a more personal level in a relaxed environment. Enriching our bond will only make us a stronger team. When we’re in sync, we are better able to serve our customers.”

Day’s Nashua, NH, store was named one of America’s Coolest Stores in 2019 by INSTORE.

Day’s became employee owned last year through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan as a way for Joe’s parents, Jeff and Kathy Corey, to transition into retirement without liquidating the business or disrupting the company culture. “The ESOP model fit with our culture, so it was a good decision for us,” Joe Corey says. “Our company has always been very autonomous, very employee-centric, giving people the responsibility to make decisions.”

To build on that ownership culture, Day’s has formed an ESOP communications committee that consists of both management and non-management staff.

“The more they feel they are owners in the company and really participating, the more vested they will be,” Joe Corey says. “No matter what your position is, you can still have a voice in this.”

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In other words, gather to create a memorable in-store experience that could be widely shared on social media?

Kris Land, VP of marketing for Robbins Brothers, said her team had been looking for a themed event that drew on relevant pop culture while also being celebratory and romantic. Something that would “make some noise,” she says.

So, when the agency they’d been working with, Serendipit Consulting of Scottsdale, AZ, suggested a Bridgerton Brunch, they jumped on the idea. “I have no fear of being crazy,” Land says.

Bridgerton’s swoon-worthy second season premiered on March 25. The first season remains Netflix’s No. 1 English-language TV show, with 625.5 million hours streamed in its first 28 days of release, drawn by the narrative around romantic notions of courtship in the Regency Era. Bridgerton’s theme is “finding the diamond of the season” — that is, the debutant destined to make the best marriage match of the season.

Land chose the Houston location to introduce the event because she knew the team, led by general manager Alex Garcia, could pull it off with aplomb. “Alex creates a special feeling in the store that’s hard to describe,” she says. “This isn’t a transaction. It’s about listening to someone’s story about their relationship. I noticed a really special vibe that happens in the store and that comes from the top.”

Garcia was familiar with the show because his wife had talked him into watching it. So, he knew he wanted to look like the distinguished leading man from the first season, the Duke of Hastings, portrayed by actor Rege-Jean Page.

Robbins Brothers’ marketing department furnished Garcia and his team with a Pinterest inspiration board and a wardrobe budget, and he perfected his look with a top hat and an embroidered vest. The whole staff had a blast shopping for costumes, Garcia says.

Garcia said the theme was so enticing to invitees that he had to stop accepting RSVPs after just four days due to the overwhelming response.

Dozens of guests, a mix of loyal customers and local influencers, dressed up too, and got into the spirit of the event, dropping an occasional curtsy and trying on an Old-World accent. Most women wore floor-length gowns accessorized with tiaras, gloves, dangling earrings and statement necklaces.

They arranged flowers, danced to a string quartet, sipped gin cocktails and posed for photos in front of a bouquet wall. Robbins Brothers partnered with florists, photographers and cake makers, which fit with the not-so-subtle wedding theme.

Guests were invited to try on and play with the jewelry, and Robbins Brothers store associates showed off vintage-style engagement rings reminiscent of the Regency era, along with more modern styles.

Throughout the event, five guests randomly won prizes, including 14K yellow gold diamond halo earrings and a 14K yellow gold diamond halo pendant.

Best-dressed Cornelia Berrocal, chosen via social-media voting, models her Regency Era-inspired costume. The honor came with a platinum engagement ring.

Cornelia Berrocal of Houston won a $7,000 Poem Platinum Diamond Engagement Ring after she was selected the best-dressed “diamond of the season” in social-media voting over four days.

Although it wasn’t created to be a selling event, it turned out to be a successful day in that way, too. “It was a cherry on top of the sundae,” Garcia says, “but it was an event to build relationships.”

Land says the event appealed to more women than men but noted that women are key influencers when it comes to where engagement rings are purchased. Sixty-eight percent of couples shop for the rings together. And although more people are window shopping online, 89 percent still prefer to walk into a brick-and-mortar environment and have an experience.

“We wanted to create something unique in that moment,” Land says.

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By 2019, the Bailey’s team had launched a new website and cultivated an active social media community. The next year, when virtual outreach became more important than ever, they picked up online clients from all over the country, with particularly keen interest from shoppers in California.

“In our industry, we have such an amazing opportunity with internet and social media,” Marci says. “In the store, we might have a piece of jewelry in the case that a customer glances at and walks right by it. But I can show a woman on social media all the different ways I wear it. That’s an advantage you do not get in a brick-and-mortar.”

Still, Marci noticed Bailey’s online shoppers often hesitated to buy from a store with a strong local identity. “If you’re in Oklahoma and you come across a website for a local jeweler in North Carolina, you’re not going to buy from that jeweler, you’re going to buy from something that feels more national,” Marci says.

“We’re blessed to have a strong family business with a strong DNA,” she says. “But I saw an opportunity to utilize my experience with engagement rings and custom and take that experience and put it exclusively online and have it feel very different.”

So, she created the Marcilla Bailey Jewelry brand, developing both a shoppable website and a Los Angeles-based showroom to launch it. She has focused on fashionable pieces that she not only would wear, but that she is wearing herself, to help clients build their own jewelry wardrobes.

Marci Bailey has branched out, with an office and showroom in Los Angeles for her online brand.

“I thought, I’m only going to do this if I can be 100 percent authentic in my experience,” she says. “It’s jewelry that I truly love and want to share; whatever I wake up in the morning and feel excited about. That gives me the confidence to know the quality is great. I’m not guessing about stuff I’ve enjoyed wearing.”

One hot seller among her curated MB Essentials grouping is a 14K gold signet ring, dubbed MB Essentials World’s Most Perfect Signet Ring, that she painstakingly created in house, collaborating with Bailey’s in-house jewelers after she couldn’t source one that she loved.

“It was either hollow or I didn’t like the shape. I wanted it to be solid gold that had a really feminine taper. I wanted something that was lighter. Our jeweler kept casting it in silver, I’d wear it for a couple days, and I’d say, ‘I want it a little narrower here.’ So we went through several different iterations.”

The signet ring is priced at $995. Most MB Essentials are priced below $1,000.

Price point is important online. “At Bailey’s, we might get the most clicks on a $150,000 pear shape engagement ring, but when we get into conversations with people or look at what they do end up buying, it’s the $895 bracelet that was paired with that engagement ring.” For MB, then, she curates pieces that work for everyday life and deliver good value.

She’s also planning to launch a collection of six mix-and-match wedding bands and engagement rings to simplify shopping even more. The rings’ aesthetic is modern with antique inspiration.

Marci primarily connects with female self-purchasers, although there is a section for guys on the MB website as well with a different approach. “When I’m face to face with a couple buying an engagement ring, I almost have to have two conversations. Men have a different sensibility and understanding of the process of shopping for jewelry. Women know what they want and what they don’t want. Men tend to be much more guarded because they feel like they don’t know what they’re talking about.

“Online, I pretty much speak to women, but it’s important to have the two languages.”

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