EDITOR’S LETTER
Fighting back against
the algorithms
CONTRIBUTORS
CONTRIBUTORS
KYLO CHUA
Kylo Chua is a
sculptor turned
jewellery designer
who works with the
abstract. He has 10
years’ experience
with fine art.
SUZANNAH
ROBIN
Suzannah is an
alcohol and drug
safety expert
at AlcoDigital.
She has helped
businesses
implement testing
policies for the last
14 years.
DAUVIT
ALEXANDER
Dauvit is a
jewellery lecturer
at Birmingham
City University.
He also designs
men’s jewellery
and works mainly
with corroded
steel and iron.
LEONARD ZELL
Leonard has
been training fine
jewellers for 25
years. His monthly
column gives
some top tips on
sales training and
improving your
bottom line
Now that the show season has cooled down, we
head into the final quarter of the year, and begin
gearing up for the Christmas sales period. The
retail landscape remains challenging, but the
UK economy continues to hold up in reasonable
condition, and there are some significant reasons
to be optimistic. Retail sales growth grew by 1%
in August compared with the previous month,
and were 2.4% higher than August last year, show the 52nd consecutive
month that sales have risen.
Amazingly, the squeeze on wages and rising inflation have not put
any brakes on the consumer appetite to go out and buy things. OK,
perhaps spending would have been even higher without that downward
pressure, but one can only look at the metrics and say if they’re up or
down. For retailers this story is great news.
That is not to blithely gloss over the challenges that retailers of all
hues face. As Leonard Zell points out in his piece this month, Amazon is
making an ever more serious play for the jewellery market – with some
success in the US, it must be said – and there is nothing to suggest that
this performance cannot be replicated in the UK. But I just don’t buy
the idea that people do not want to try a piece of expensive jewellery
on before purchasing it – above a certain price point, the investment
is too serious, too personal, to be made on the strength of a 250-pixel
image on a website. Jewellery is the ultimate in personal expression, and
who wouldn’t want to see that object in the flesh first, if it is going to
physically adorn their neck, wrist, finger or ears?
High street retailers have something that Amazon’s algorithms do not:
customer experience. More than ever, jewellers need to make the in-store
browsing and purchasing process fundamental to the experience of
buying jewellery. Clued-up sales staff, pristine interiors with stunning
displays, relationship building, intimacy – these are all things that
Amazon cannot compete with.
MICHAEL NORTHCOTT
Editor, Jewellery Focus
ON THE
COVER
FEATURE
October 2017 | www.jewelleryfocus.co.uk £5.95 | ISSN 2046-7265
CAPTURING
MOTION
Learning from sculptor-
turned-jewellery designer
Kylo Chua about echoing
a ballerina’s poise in
precious metal
DRUG
TESTING
Your responsibilities as an
employer, and how to strike
the balance with your staff
BREXIT &
BRITISH
WATCHES
AUCTIONING
ONLINE
Kylo Chua
page 22
41 38 36
LEONARD ZELL SCHOOL OF JEWELLERY HUMAN RIGHTS
October 2017 | jewelleryfocus.co.uk
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