A father-and-daughter team run R. Westphal Jewelers in Hutchinson, Kansas. Both Richard and Katie Westphal are bench jewelers, and all custom and repair work is performed at the store.
Hutchinson, Kansas--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.
Richard Westphal comes from a family of gemologists and bench jewelers. He founded R. Westphal Jewelers in 1977 in Hutchinson, Kansas. When his daughter Katie Westphal was old enough, he included her in the family tradition.
“Her first day at the store,” Richard explained, “rather than working at the showcases, Katie was sitting at the bench. She had cut her finger and her fingers were dirty and battered and I remember her mom calling me and asking me, ‘What happened to Katie today?’ and I said, ‘Well, she got into the trenches.’”
Fast-forward 18 years and Katie now runs R. Westphal Jewelers with her father. Both work at the bench, as all custom and repair work is completed in-store.
“The whole heart of this business revolves around the bench,” Richard said. “In a small town like this, people want to know who is doing the work and is it being done here. The number one thing we have is that when we receive grandma’s diamond, it stays here. We don’t send it out to a trade shop, we do everything in the store, which is a really great selling tool, I think.”
National Jeweler spoke with Richard and Katie about the challenges of online competition and keeping the family tradition alive. Founded in 1977 by Richard Westphal, R. Westphal Jewelers in Hutchinson, Kansas is 2,500 square feet. Today the business is run by Westphal and his daughter Katie. They have four additional employees. National Jeweler: What’s the biggest challenge your store is facing?
Richard Westphal: Trying to sell the things that we have in stock. We’re seeing shoppers come in, particularly with bridal, and they like the rings we have but they want modifications. So we’re selling things, but we’re seeing more and more modifications and changing of a product we already have.
The other challenge would be that business is unpredictable, all over the place. We have a big day one day, and the next we have very little business. There’s no consistency. When I opened 40 years ago--that’s a long time ago--there was a little bit of predictability and there weren’t so many choices.
When consumers come in now, they have the opportunity to buy from 20 different places. Back then, before
the internet and before Amazon and Pinterest, the choices were what we had in the store. Now (customers are) exposed to so many other opportunities to purchase and they’re aware of so many more things. They see things online that they like and we may not have that but we have something similar. Consequently we’re doing a lot of custom work, which is still OK, but business is changing so much.
Katie Westphal: I think it has a lot to do with my generation. If we’re going to look for anything, I go right to my phone and go to Google. I look there, and then I go shopping. I still shop at local places but you go to the internet and look first for ideas and then go somewhere to try to find that idea you had in your head, which is why I think we have to customize stuff a lot.
RW: I’m 68 years old, so my generation’s way of shopping is going into a store and buying something they have. I would use the phone book.
The challenge for me is technology and keeping up on how things have changed--which is good in so many ways, it’s not all bad--it’s just I’m struggling to keep up on how things have changed especially for the young consumers because that’s a big part of our business.
Their philosophy is totally different than my own. Katie is better at it than I am because that’s her generation, they can understand each other more.
Richard and Katie Westphal NJ: What’s the top-selling category and brand at your store?
RW: Bridal is our number one category.
We don’t have Tacori and Scott Kay or big brands like that. The companies we sell a lot of are Rego, Gottlieb, Allison Kaufman, S. Kashi. Those are some of our better vendors. They’re not name brands.
We don’t see many customers come in and say, “I want Tacori,” or “I want Hearts On Fire.”
KW: I think it’s the area we’re in also, because we’re in the Midwest. The brand names don’t do a lot for people out here.
NJ: Who is your regional customer?
RW: It’s pretty diverse. A lot of them are 20- to 35-year-olds who are buying bridal.
KW: We have so many customers that started with my dad--some in the 1970s--that are still customers but now their kids are coming in to buy.
RW: The second generation.
KW: I see a lot of people coming in that are my age who say, “Oh, my parents bought their rings here,” or “My aunt and uncle bought their rings here.” There are a lot of second- and third-generation customers coming in.
NJ: What trends are you seeing in engagement rings?
RW: Halos. A lot of halos.
KW: A lot more asking for rose gold and some looking for yellow. I’ve seen some 20-year-olds looking for yellow gold.
RW: The number one diamond cut is round. We’re selling cushions.
KW: We do sell a lot of cushions.
RW: Also princess cuts. We’re starting to see some ovals and marquises as well.
The Westphals have won numerous awards over the years for their bench jewelry work.NJ: What’s your social media presence like? What accounts do you have or actively use?
KW: Mainly Facebook and we don’t even run it ourselves, we run it through an outside source, but predominantly Facebook.
NJ: Do you have e-commerce?
RW: As a senior citizen, I think the future is going to be more and more of e-commerce down the line. Right now, we’re not doing any e-commerce. We’d like to but we’re not selling anything on the internet. We’re not really going after it, but I think it’s an important thing to look at. I think it will be the future.
There’s something to be said for coming in and looking at the product live in your store so I’m more geared toward that, but I know a lot of people are shopping online. I know it’s huge.
KW: I don’t have a lot of interest in it only because as a retailer I think it might intimidate me a little bit. It might be too much to physically run a business and have an online business--it almost feels like two separate businesses to me. It might be a little overwhelming, like I wouldn’t be able to put enough effort into both of them. It’s almost like it needs to be run as two separate entities. That’s why I don’t have much interest in it.
Again, I come from a younger generation but I still like if we have a customer with an issue for them to physically come in and talk to me so I can see what they’re showing me and see what their problem is. I still like that and with online shopping that goes out the window.
We have someone who runs our website for us; it doesn’t have our actual merchandise on it but it links to our suppliers’ websites.
The only thing on our website that is definitely physically in the store are all of our custom designs, the pieces we make in the store. We keep that updated.
NJ: What’s the best piece of advice you’d offer to other independent jewelry stores?
RW: I would say try to be optimistic and try to be happy.
Business is tough right now and it’s a little frustrating. Always present yourself with a smile and be happy to see your customers. Sometimes it’s difficult to do, when your last five sales were people who looked at your product and you ended up special ordering and you didn’t sell the things out of your case that you need to sell because we have to pay for those.
Sometimes there’s a little frustration from that but try to be friendly, be calm, because personality goes a long way. Stress more and more on customer service. Whatever we can do to make it a friendly experience to get a consumer to shop in our store over someone else’s store or especially online, we do.
We like to make the key people here, which would be me and Katie, available as much as we can to engage ourselves with customers as much as we can because a lot of times they want to see me, especially, because I started the store. So it’s always making yourself available and having the spirit to see them because people often want to see me, even for a watch battery. Keeping a good attitude and focusing on customer service is my advice.
KW: It’s hard sometimes to keep positive or not let one grumpy customer ruin a day. No matter how bad something is going on in the back, you have to walk out like it’s the best day ever. Attitude goes a long way if you can just stay positive.
For me, it’s not forgetting what my dad built and I would like to keep that going so it’s a lot about attitude and liking what you’re doing.
RW: One of the ways I built my business is because a lot of repairs are done in the store. I’m actually a bench person. A lot of the service work we do, so I still sit at the bench and Katie can do the same things I do.
KW: I started sitting at the bench when I was 16.
NJ: What’s a fun fact about you we can share with our readers?
KW: I’m just busy. I’m actually in school full time. I’m trying to finish my CPA degree. So I’m doing that on top of the jewelry store and I have two kids, I have a 6 year old and a 10 month old. So I pretty much run from children to work to school.
RW: She’s also competed in international competitions in dressage and equestrian. So she’s quite accomplished in horse riding.
KW: I don’t get it to do it as much anymore; maybe when the kids are a little older.
NJ: What about you Richard?
RW: Is there anything fun about me Katie?
KW: Pretty much when you’re not at the store, you’re busy with my kids. So the grandkids keep him busy.
RW: Having fun with the grandkids.
Ashley Davisis the senior editor, fashion at National Jeweler, covering all things related to design, style and trends.
