Meyers Jewelers is polishing off a rare jewel of its own.
The Grove City store will open the nation’s first Hearts on Fire store-in-store Thursday. If successful, the in-store boutique could roll out to more jewelers in 2014.
Meyers Jewelers was selected by the Boston-based diamond jewelry brand in part because it is a consistent top seller of the brand worldwide. Hearts on Fire Co. is sold in more than 650 stores across 34 countries.
“For many jewelers, it’s just about selling something to somebody,” Gilly Strauss, Hearts on Fire executive vice president of global sales, told me. “For some, it’s an opportunity to celebrate the most important moment in their customers’ lives. When that clicks, as it does (at Meyers), that’s a wonderful partnership for us.”
Meyers sold 345 pieces overall in the year ended in September and saleswoman Shawn Rummel was the top Hearts on Fire salesman by total units.
Meyers Vice President Scott Weisman also played a hand in the in-store boutique’s creation, having pitched the idea to Hearts on Fire executives more than two years ago after seeing watch brands do it.
“We hadn’t gone that route with jewelry before,” he said. “It was always just in a generic case.”
Meyers took an existing storeroom and converted it into the boutique.
“Now it stands out as an individual, as it should,” Weisman said.
The seven-by-14 foot in-store boutique will open Thursday in plenty of time for the Black Friday kick-off of the holiday shopping season.
Hearts on Fire has two U.S. stores of its own and the store-in-store takes some of its design cues from them, but it will be tailored to each retailer as it rolls out since the size and layout of most stores can vary. As many as 20 more boutiques could open in the next two years.
“Our intention is to roll these out and this is a wonderful launching point,” Strauss said.
Weisman also said Meyers will be getting a similar store-in-store setup for the Breitling watch brand in early 2014. That already is being used at other retailers around the country, but Weisman said he believes the Breitling display will be the first in the Midwest.
The Hearts on Fire line includes rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces and range from $950 to $5 million. We reported last year on the luxury goods market, including a $28,000 diamond ring sale at Meyers.
The new space gives the brand a clearly designated sales area and more space for added product.
“There’s nothing that they make that we won’t have,” Weisman said.