Q&A: Caryl Capeci Dives Into Cruise Jewelry Shopping

Jewelry industry veteran Caryl Capeci has taken her talents out to sea.

Capeci, who previously was CEO of Chow Tai Fook North America and president of Hearts On Fire, joined Starboard Group as its new senior vice president of fine jewelry and watches in October 2023.

Since then, she has been working to improve the cruise jewelry shopping experience and encourage new jewelry brands to set sail.

In a recent interview with National Jeweler, Capeci discussed the most popular watch and jewelry brands onboard, the importance of a captive audience, and why people shop for jewelry on cruises.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Lenore Fedow: How does a jewelry store at sea differ from one on land?

Caryl Capeci: My whole experience in my career was on land before I got to Starboard. The approach that we take is really one where we want to take the best in class of retail on land, so all the things that we know that are necessary to be exceptional, like great customer service and great visual presentation, great product, but marry that with the unique opportunities we have at sea.

I would say the most important one is we have a captive audience.

So, whether it is a three-day sailing, a seven-day sailing, a 10-day sailing, the guests on the ship are really moving in and out of the retail stores through their entire vacation.

And they are engaging with the people, the staff behind the counter, but they’re also using those retail venues as part of their nighttime entertainment as they walk around with a cocktail.

That’s probably the most important—the captive guest. We have people celebrating all kinds of milestone occasions. So, you might be in the market for a piece of fine jewelry or a Swiss watch at home and that [milestone may have happened] in the last year, but when you get on board, you are actually now in this gratification experience. 

You want to commemorate and celebrate why you’re there, and you really use that as an opportunity to take advantage of what you’re seeing and the retail options being presented to you.

There’s a lot more activations and events combined with just the fact that you’re in these great places.

You can now see items and discover brands you may not have known before; that all comes together and creates a unique buying experience, which is really why jewelry is one of the number one No. 1 categories sold.

And It always has been, but it’s really more popular than ever now.

LF: There is so much to do on cruises, like events and excursions. How do you encourage customers to come into your stores when they have all of these options? What is the marketing to your cruise customers like?

CC: That’s a great question because we’re always rethinking how we speak to them. The No. 1 way we communicate and the cruise line communicates with the guest is through the app that they create.

So, now, a lot of the booking of excursions or spa appointments or dinner is done on the app, and we also use that app to encourage them to come to events or if there are promotions or retail opportunities we want them to consider.

There is an enormous amount of great things to do on a cruise vacation. A lot of them are off [the ship] when they’re at port too, like land-based excursions and visiting the ports. So, they will do that then they come back on ship.

The retail shops on a cruise ship are not open when the ship is in port. It’s only when they come back to the ship. We sail out for half an hour and then we open up the shops.

We try to coordinate all of our activities in pockets of time where we know the guests might be in between dinners, or between cocktail hour and dinner, where they would naturally be moving through the ship. We let them discover experiences and events that happen throughout the ship in the retail spaces and in other social spaces as well.

LF: Why are you closed when the ship is in port?

CC: It’s just maritime rules. All cruise ship [shops] are only allowed to be open when they’re in international waters.

LF: I’ve taken a few Royal Caribbean cruises before, and whenever I’m scrolling through the app, I always see these “learn more” sessions that are hosted by the stores on board. How successful are those in terms of conversion to actual customers?

CC: It depends on the category, but we really use those quite a bit.

On the ships, there are so many different types of guests—by age, by things they’re looking to do. So, we always say we want to make sure there’s something for everyone.

When you think about fine jewelry or Swiss watches, there is absolutely an educational component where people really are interested to learn more.

For Swiss watches, we’ll have a history of Swiss watches and timekeeping events that we match with scotch (called a “Swiss and Scotch” event) and wine tastings.

With diamond jewelry, we’ll have an event where we help people understand the difference between lab-grown and natural diamonds because it really does help them to have a better understanding of what they’re actually buying and the value associated.

If we’re in destinations, like in the Mediterranean or Alaska, we absolutely have fun events that will help them understand the materials that are organic or natural to that destination we’re traveling to.

So, it depends on the category, but usually guests love to sort of meander into a shop, listen for a little bit, and then use that as a way to put more attention to what they’re shopping for.

LF: So, those events sort of double as an educational tool as well.

CC:  Yeah, and we try to make them fun. I mean, everyone’s on vacation. They can’t be boring. 

We keep them short, keep them sweet, but we also want them to leave knowing something that they may not have known when they arrived. 

LF:  What is the incentive to buy onboard versus going to a store when I get home?

CC: It’s a combination of a lot of things.

First of all, we are duty-free and tax-free. So, that’s absolutely in the frame of mind that everyone’s bringing to the vacation.

Many people may not have access to some of the brands that we sell readily available in their hometown. We sell everything from Bulgari, Cartier, Omega, TAG Heuer, and Breitling to John Hardy, Monica Rich Kosann, and generic diamond jewelry.

We also sell fashion jewelry, like Pandora and Swarovski.

Many guests will actually see something that if they don’t live that close to a boutique in a major city, they want to take advantage of being able to have it here and it’s tax-free, duty- free, so there are those benefits as well.

I think for the most part, people just get caught up in having that high of being on a great vacation with your friends and your family and shopping is always part of what people usually do.

Those things all come together, and a cruise retail environment takes advantage of all of all of those benefits.

LF: There are some people who would maybe advise against buying jewelry on a cruise ship for various reasons. What would you say to someone who is unsure about making a purchase on board?

CC: The way that I look at it is when you’re on a Royal Caribbean ship or you’re on a Virgin ship or you’re on the Ritz, you have three very important organizations that are standing behind the product we’re selling you.

You have Starboard. We have been in business for 60 years. We have an incredible customer service operation behind us that you could always reach after you leave the ship.

You have the cruise line, like Royal Caribbean and Virgin. They stand behind everything that we sell for them. And The guest knows, and many of them are loyal guests of these cruise lines, that if they have an issue, they could always call Royal Caribbean or Virgin and have someone that they could speak to.

And then lastly, we have the brands that we sell. We work with all of the global brands and we work with manufacturing partners that stand by their product, quality products, and they always put guests first, as we do.

With those three entities there is no way that you [won’t be able to find a resolution] if you have an issue when you get home.

That is really all they need because there’s always an 800 number for those three entities that will solve a problem if they have it.

LF: Speaking of your shoppers, what is the demographic of people who shop for jewelry in your stores?

CC: It really depends on the ship. We work with over 100 cruise ships. That changes every quarter, but it’s usually around 95 to 100, and they’re all so different.

The size of the ship, the cruise line, the destination it’s traveling to, all of those things contribute to the guest who’s on board.

For the most part, I would say fine jewelry customers are typically the same as you would find on land.

Maybe 30 years old to 60 years old. They usually run the gamut of affluence because there’s something in that store for everyone.

So, If you’re looking for a very high-end piece of diamond jewelry, we have that. If you’re looking for a piece of fashion jewelry, we have that.

We have entry-level gold or pearls or gemstones, but it really is dependent on the cruise ship, dependent on the itinerary.

We have beautiful shops on The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection as one experience, and then we might have a three-day cruise that is more of a weekend cruise with some of our bigger cruise lines, which is a different type of guest.

All of them typically buy fine jewelry because they associate cruising with buying jewelry and watches, which is why we want to help them find the piece they’re looking for.

LF: On average, what would you say a passenger spends in one of your stores?

CC: Our total average across all of those 100 ships is about $2,000. 

I think that’s typical, probably more, than what you would find in a land-based retailer like in an independent. 

I think we also have an opportunity for a lot more higher-end jewelry that people buy when they’re on cruises because it’s duty-free and tax-free. So, that probably [pushes] our average price up. 

LF: I was on a cruise earlier this year, and I was pleasantly surprised to see some trendy brands that I maybe was not expecting to see there, like Messika for instance. How do you all determine if a brand is a good fit for one of your on-ship stores?

CC: That’s such a great question, because one of the things I’m committed to doing since I arrived is to really be the conduit between the jewelry industry and the cruise industry.

Typically on cruise ships, it would have been the same brands and manufacturers that were on every single cruise ship.

But I know and you know that there are so many smaller and midsize brands in the jewelry industry that really could benefit from being on cruises. They just didn’t really understand how they could work through the logistics or how much would they need to contribute in order to do that.

So, we’ve made it a mission to really think about all of those jewelers that are at the Couture show or all the jewelers that are at JCK and figure out opportunities to get them to test out cruising.

Brands like Messika are fairly new to cruises. Lagos, Monica Rich Kosann, and Shy Creation are new to cruises.

We’re just going through all the brands we know do well on land, whether it’s in an independent store, in a local town, or it’s in Bergdorf Goodman. There is an opportunity because we have so many different cruise ships.

We’re now exploring pop-ups where you can come onto a ship for three months or four months and bring your product and maybe even help us by having one of your sales ambassadors show us how you can be successful on cruises.

We’re [also] identifying materials that might be specific to Greece or Brazil or Italy and seeking out special brands that might work in those materials so they could be part of our Mediterranean cruises.

We’re really looking to get as many new manufacturers and brands that are new to cruises to come on and check it out and see what the opportunity is because not only can they expose their brand to an entirely new group of customers, but they can build their brand awareness as well.

There are so many millions of passengers we are working with every year that the brand awareness component of being on cruise is as impactful as the actual revenue they produce by selling.

We’re always looking to expand. One of my reasons for being at Couture and at JCK is to find more brands that we can line up to put on ships in the coming 18 months.

(Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to the 2025 Las Vegas jewelry shows.)

LF: What would you say are some of your most popular brands and designers?

CC: Bulgari, definitely. We sell Bulgari on our ship in China. So, sailing out of Mainland China, we have a spectacular boutique on the Ritz, and then we have Bulgari boutiques on Royal Caribbean, on the largest ships.

Then we have brands like John Hardy, which does very well, and Le Vian does well.

Sydney Evan is on some of the luxury ships. Messika and Shy Creation do very well. Kallati is a brand that is sold in Jared stores but is also very popular on cruise ships.

It’s a really fun dynamic because it is brands that have grown up on cruises. [Many] have built their name through cruises, like Providence Gems, which sells a material called “Zultanite.”

And then we have global brands, like all of the Swiss brands are represented. TAG Heuer, Breitling, Omega, and Longines, they all do incredibly well.

It is fun to see, and because the itineraries and the ships play a role in which brands connect with which guests, it really is a bit of a puzzle trying to figure out what’s the best marriage of itinerary, ship, and brand to drive the greatest success. So that’s a bit of the fun of it.

LF: It definitely is fun. At first, I was like, I don’t want to go into the jewelry stores on the ship because that is equivalent to working for me. And then I couldn’t help it. I passed a couple times, and I said, “I’m just going to look really quickly.”

CC: You can’t help yourself, right? You should have just done mystery shopping, and then you could have called us and been like, “I’ll charge you, and I’ll give you what’s going on.”

LF: Definitely a thought for the future, mystery shopping one of your ships! Lastly, I wanted to talk to you a bit about tariffs.

So, we have all this economic uncertainty, rising prices, and people may be reconsidering how they want to spend their money. And your business involves two splurges—one, I’m taking a vacation, and two, I’m going to buy jewelry while I’m there.

How do you think the tariffs are going to affect your business, and then secondly, your customers?

CC: As you know, most of the industry, whether they’re in the watch world or the jewelry world, is sort of taking a “wait-and-see” approach because they know it’s fluctuating by the day and no one quite knows where it will land.

From a business perspective, because we work with many duty-free customers, we have the ability to skirt some of the tariffs because if we are buying from manufacturers that are making in India, making in Thailand, making in China, they then send us their product to our duty-free bonded warehouse, and we put it on the ships.

So, we can actually benefit in a significant way by being tariff-free in some of those instances in addition to duty-free and tax-free. For other brands, the jury’s still out.

The global brands, even though we might be duty-free with them, have a global MSRP, so they’re going to have to determine how pricing is impacted.

We have a huge benefit today because a lot of our merchandise is duty and tax-free and tariff-free. So,

Guests understand that when they’re on board and they are saying, “Let me take advantage now and buy while I can because we’re not quite sure what prices might look like three or four months from now.”

In terms of the guests, cruising has never been more popular. Post-COVID, it came back with a vengeance and has never stopped.

The amount of guests who are booking cruises, the new builds coming out from all of the cruise lines, the projections two, three, and four years out are incredibly bullish.

From an industry perspective, we’re all in great shape because we know the guests will be there. People will always vacation and they’ll always save up time to spend time with their loved ones in a special way. That we’re solid on. I think when it comes to buying jewelry and watches, I do think that we will benefit.

Yes, their prices may go up. No one knows yet for sure depending on the categories in some cases. But if they are going to get some [jewelry or watches], a tariff-free or a duty- and tax- free environment, like on a cruise, is the best place to find those deals and find those values.

And we really do encourage everyone to really pay attention to some of the special promotions and the values that we always have going on because it does allow for some really great deals when they’re shopping and sailing.

LF: Is there anything you would like to add or mention before we wrap up?

CC: The only thing I would reinforce is how critically important the cruise industry can be for the jewelry industry and the watch industry. 

Many jewelry brands feel like they’re not big enough or the logistics are too hard or, “Oh my gosh, I don’t know how to deal with getting product on and off.”

But we are making all of that so much easier for the industry and for our jewelry partners. I really do encourage anyone in the jewelry industry who is in any way interested [in selling] their brand at sea to reach out to us because we really think there are incredible opportunities and one size does not fit all. 

Ships are different, itineraries are different, and the length is different so we can find something for everyone. We promise that it’ll be an extension to your land business that you will find to be great for building your brand. 

Starboard is also working with Jewelers Mutual now to bring insurance onto the ships. We’re working with the GIA so that the GIA can train our team. 

We’re also a member of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee so that we can make sure that we are bringing all the components of best-in-class retail from land into our operation at sea.