Step inside the nearly 21,000-square-foot suburban Chicago jewelry store with Editor-in-Chief Michelle Graff.
50 Jewelers/50 States: Iowa
Christopher’s Fine Jewelry in Des Moines is setting sales records through its dedication to the basics, like writing thank-you notes.
Des Moines, IA--In 50 Jewelers/50 States, National Jeweler interviews one retailer in each of the 50 U.S. states to find out how they are meeting the challenges of the changing retail environment.
In 2013, the owner of Des Moines, Iowa jewelry store Christopher’s Fine Jewelry and its sister business, Christopher’s Rare Coins, retired, leaving the operation to its general manager, Christine Osborne.
Osborne and the owner worked with a business coach, taking a year-and-a-half to make the full transition.
“My promise to (the owner) when we started this process is that--and this was his wish--that the store would live on past him,” said Osborne. “He spent 30 years building it and he wanted it to remain a good local option for people, so when I promised that I would build a sustainable business I realized fairly quickly that that meant it had to live on beyond me too.”
Osborne explained to National Jeweler how she’s hit store sales records through her re-commitment to foundational retail and business skills.
National Jeweler: What’s the biggest challenge your store is facing?
Christine Osborne: Keeping up with how, generationally, things change but also remain the same, and trying to find that balance between continuing to meet clients how they want to be communicated with and what their needs are.
One of our core values is really educating our staff and our customers. My sales staff is challenged to continue to educate people because they come in with so much internet knowledge that may or may not be accurate. So the challenge is to try to really talk clients through (the buying process) and making sure we’re meeting their needs even though they come in thinking they know what they want.
Something we talk about a lot is, “Is what we bring in the store best for our clients and our market and are they good quality items that are going to last?” It’s always a challenge finding the balance between good quality items that are still affordable and a good value.
That, I can say, in the last 15 years has changed a lot, and in our case we
NJ: What’s the top-selling category and brand at your store?
CO: Bridal. I carry five main lines but my top two would be Noam Carver and S. Kashi and Sons. We believe in all the lines that we have.
NJ: What bridal trends are you seeing?
CO: We’ve seen kind of a transition a little bit away from halos toward more simple, clean lines, more solitaire-based (styles), which is kind of interesting. We still have halos but we’re starting to see less fussy styles grow in popularity.
NJ: Who is your regional customer?
CO: I kind of have a split demographic. We still have a strong 35- to 55-year-old woman as an independent purchaser--kind of our repair customer and they like our estate jewelry. That group and their husbands will come in for major anniversaries and things.
We also have that 27 to 35 engagement couple. We do well with that as well and really work on building that relationship for life.
Our coin demographic is a bit older. In general, the collector is skewed toward an older male demographic. Then we have the group of people who are investors, so with bullions our investor group is I would say more of that 30-to-50 age group. It’s still pretty heavily male but you have your few females who really understand the investing piece and purchase bullion, or they’ll buy a gift for their husband or dad if they’re a collector. But it is definitely a heavily male demographic.
NJ: What’s your social media presence like? What accounts do you have or actively use?
CO: Facebook is important for our older female demographic but we’re trying to grow Instagram right now.
NJ: Do you have e-commerce?
CO: I don’t have e-commerce. We discuss it for small gifting items, like our silver lines or the lower price point diamond fashion. We’re not sure that that’s a real bonus for us right now.
NJ: What’s the best piece of advice you’d offer to other independent jewelry stores?
CO: In the last couple of years we’ve made some real growth with our retail sales, which I know is unusual right now. We did have some brand rebuilding after the whole gold-buying boom in 2008 and 2009, and we’ve just hit a couple of big milestones as far as sales goals so I get asked a lot, “How are you doing it?”
It comes down to we really looked at the basics of building our brand, building inside the store. We do a lot of the hard, foundational work all the time.
We’re constantly looking at marketing and how we do it with the marketing company that I hired, how we can do it better, are we consistent?
It’s the same thing with training my staff, hiring the right people and making sure they’re being rewarded in ways that are important to them. We remodeled our back room last year to make a better break area for them--a clean space that they can relax in--and so making sure both our clients’ experience and our employees’ experience is good.
It comes down to really working hard on all of the basics all of the time, like always writing thank-you notes, always making follow-up calls on repairs. When you stray from the basics, crazy things happen. The foundational work is a constant.
Even when you think you have great salespeople who know how to sell your wedding bands, (you have to continue to work). We just had a sales instructor in for a training and (the sales team) were all like, “Wow, that was awesome.” It’s not that the trainer said anything they haven’t heard before, but it helps keep them focused.
They have sales meetings weekly and constantly talk about how to be better.
When I transitioned into running the store in 2013, it went well because the (owner, non-operator) and I had a good transition plan. That’s when we really started going back to the basics and re-building.
I have to run it how I know how and, for me, that meant building a solid management team to support each department who are responsible for training and development, while I’m in charge of the finance and marketing for the entire business.
I have three managers who really support each department. We work together really closely on continuing to build the business and grow so that’s been fun to get that all together.
NJ: What’s a fun fact about you we can share with our readers?
CO: My husband and I have teenagers and we got a Great Dane puppy last year and he’s my baby. He’s huge--he’s bigger than I am--and his name is Bernard. He’s definitely my baby after my children and the store.
The Latest
These punk-inspired earrings from the new Canadian brand’s debut collection reveal the alter ego of the classic pearl.
The company brings its nanotechnology to two new fancy cuts for diamonds that feature its signature color and brilliance.
From protecting customer data to safeguarding inventory records, it's crucial to learn how to tackle cybersecurity challenges.
Sponsored by Tasha R
Three Titanic survivors presented him with the personalized Tiffany & Co. timepiece about a year after the tragedy.
A federal court found that the jewelry store chain violated terms of the settlement reached after it was accused of defrauding customers.
This fall, sharpen your skills in jewelry grading, quality control and diamond assessment.
Cynthia Erivo chose Dreams of Hope, an organization dedicated to empowering LGBTQA+ youth, as the charity for this year’s collection.
The new space was designed to evoke a warm, inviting vibe.
Kinney, who spent nearly 30 years at IJO, has been hired to head Abbott Jewelry Systems’ new virtual marketplace.
The auction house was accused of helping clients avoid paying taxes on millions of dollars’ worth of art purchased from 2010 to 2020.
The four finalists will present their pieces at the 2025 JCK Las Vegas show.
The “Camera Oscura” collection showcases earring designs celebrating female Surrealist artists Claude Cahun and Leonor Fini.
The money will fund the planting of 10,000 trees in critical areas across Oregon, Arizona, Montana, and other regions.
The event centered on advancing jewelry manufacturing technology will return to Detroit in May 2025.
Local reports identified the woman as the wife of the jewelry store owner.
A collection of pieces owned by Ferdinand I, the first king of modern Bulgaria, and his family, blew away estimates in Geneva last week.
The Australian jewelry box brand’s new West Village store will showcase new jewelers each month through its Designer in Residence program.
“Lovechild” was created in partnership with Carolyn Rafaelian’s Metal Alchemist brand.
Hampton discussed how Helzberg is improving the customer experience and why it was inspired by the company formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts.
The group will host several curated events and an exhibition of designer jewelry made with Peruvian gold traceable to the miners’ names.
The collection honors the 50th anniversary of Dolly Parton’s “Love is Like a Butterfly” song, which shares a birth year with Kendra Scott.
This year’s theme asks designers to take inspiration from classic fairy tales.
Senior Editor Lenore Fedow makes the case for why more jewelers should be appealing to nerds at the annual event.
The latest “Raiz’in” drop showcases a newly designed “Scapular” necklace and donates a portion of the proceeds to Make-A-Wish France.
No. 1 out of 100, the timepiece was created to mark Citizen’s 100th anniversary and will be auctioned off at Sotheby’s next month.