2022 has become a turbulent year for almost everyone in Russia. And how does the country's largest jewelry chain feel? Has the structure of demand, sales volumes and approach to customer interaction changed? Andrey Shlyaev, Marketing and Sales Director of the most represented jewelry retailer in Russia, the "585*GOLDEN" chain, kindly agreed to answer these and other questions of Rough&Polished.
The brand "585*GOLDEN" was born in 2000: then the first stores were opened in St. Petersburg. By 2007, the chain already had 425 stores in 130 cities of the country, having increased 10 times in seven years.
In 2011, "585 * GOLDEN" launches a franchise, in 2013 – online sales. In 2014, with a symbolic number of 585 objects, "585*GOLDEN" becomes an international brand: stores are opened in Kazakhstan.
In 2017, the network turns into a family of brands: the Center of Wedding Rings network is launched.
In 2019, having exceeded a thousand retail outlets, "585*GOLDEN" is holding a grandiose promotion for customers: future newlyweds participate in the drawing of a wedding trip and an apartment in St. Petersburg.
In 2021, the premium brand "585*Diamonds", the brand of Orthodox jewelry "Pokrov" and oriental jewelry "Dahabi" will be launched.
And in 2022, the chain opened in Moscow Russia's first multi-brand jewelry hypermarket with an area of more than 1100 square meters.
What is the jewelry chain "585*GOLDEN" today and what is its uniqueness?
Today "585*GOLD" unites more than 1000 objects, own and franchised, which makes us the largest player in the Russian jewelry retail market. Every fourth piece of jewelry in Russia is purchased in the "585*GOLD" network.
How would you describe your clients? What do they particularly value?
Today, our customers are distinguished by both rational and emotional approach to shopping. Some customers go to the store, already imagining what they want to buy. Another part prefers spontaneous emotional shopping, so fitting jewelry and making a purchase decision takes place directly in the store.
Our clients appreciate a personalized approach to communication and additional benefits: they enjoy using loyalty programs and cashback, follow discounts, personal offers (for example, birthday, wedding anniversary) and special conditions and gifts.
So, by the end of 2022, the percentage of cashback usage has increased significantly (+17%). The option of exchanging old jewelry when buying new ones is becoming more and more popular.
What jewelry do your customers prefer?
One of the trends that clearly emerged by the end of 2022 is an increase in the share of gold in the total sales structure.
In February 2023, the demand for gold products increased by 17.2% compared to February last year. In addition, the growing trend towards conscious consumption also affects: people they want to buy high-quality jewelry that will remain relevant for a long time and at the same time have investment potential.
Therefore, the global preference is gold. However, the demand for silver increases during the holidays, when, let’s say, you need to buy several gifts without compromising your personal budget.
Are diamond jewelry in demand among your customers?
Yes, sales of premium segment gold, with diamonds and other precious stones have increased especially noticeably this year – by 25% compared to February 2022.
It was such jewelry that was most often bought all over the country on the eve of the holidays. In general, gold products with inlays are purchased more often than without them, by 20%.
At one time, we anticipated this trend by launching the premium sub-brand "585*Diamonds" in 2021: today it is represented by 10 stores in different regions of the country and shop-in-shop formats in the stores of the main brand.
The assortment of "585*Diamonds" is only 585 and 750 gold with a wide variety of precious stones.
Separately, I would like to note the increased demand for wedding rings – 6.5% higher than in February 2022.
Image credit: "585*GOLDEN"
Do you observe differences in the purchasing behavior of men and women?
Recently, our analytical center conducted a large study of consumer behavior, analyzed 2.4 million retail sales across the country.
Its results in one sentence: women buy more often, but men spend more. Gold remains the most popular precious metal among representatives of both sexes.
Thus, women's spending on gold jewelry amounted to 85% of the total volume, men's spending - 90%.
The most popular purchased product is earrings, both for men and women: among the female audience, 30% of the purchase of earrings accounts for, among the male – 23%. Men buy these products as a gift. Plus, they buy rings and bracelets more often than women.
On holidays, consumer activity traditionally increases, especially in the New Year, in second place – March 8, in third place – the birthday of the company (when we give the maximum discounts and the most favorable offers).
In general, men are more "active" on holidays (with the exception of February 23). But men and women prepare for the holiday in different ways. Women begin to choose and purchase gifts 7-10 days before the date, and men – 2-4 days, and often on the holiday itself.
What kind of jewelry will be on trend in the upcoming spring-summer season?
Jewelry trends are a topic for a separate interview, and a stylist's comment will be more appropriate here than mine.
I will highlight a few of the most obvious. Jewelry with stones of green shades – emeralds and chrysolites, as well as with "delicate" stones – topaz, amethysts, pearls, quartz – are traditionally relevant every spring and summer.
Let's not forget about the main color of 2023 – a shade of red Viva Magenta, and these are, of course, rubies and other stones in a pink-red range.
Massive chains "a la the 90s" do not lose popularity. Finally, the basic jewelry wardrobe will always be relevant – classic models that are easy to combine with different looks.
To learn more about trends, subscribe to the social network "585* GOLDEN" and visit the pages of the online magazine "Golden": we work closely with stylists, and they quite often perform on our sites with fashion trends, talk about how to integrate stylish solutions into everyday image, how to combine jewelry or how to create a fashionable image with the help of familiar jewelry and accessories.
What are your plans for business development?
If we talk about management approaches, we have always highly appreciated the ability to react quickly to market dynamics and make decisions promptly.
Now we are optimizing our retail stores and continuing to develop the franchising direction, since this format of cooperation is obviously mutually beneficial both for us and for franchisees.
Today we have more than 17 million customers, and our task is to create a really valuable marketing offer with individual conditions for each of them. So we keep moving towards everything more personalization in customer offers.
Last year, we implemented a smart loyalty program based on an intelligent IT platform that allows you to create separate promotions for each customer segment based on purchase history. This year we will continue to improve communications at all levels based on the "smart" platform.
Do you expect an increase in prices for jewelry made of gold and silver in the near future?
We hope that the price will not rise, but we are ready for any change in the situation.
In this sense, the jewelry retail market turned out to be one of the most stable in the turbulent 2022: the average market price for jewelry increased by about 5%, while prices for cosmetics, according to Rosstat, increased by 25%, household appliances, electronics and products rose by 16%, and clothing – by 8%.
Therefore, it is better not to postpone jewelry shopping and choose jewelry now.
Tell us about the social and charitable projects of the brand "585*GOLDEN". Why is this important for a jewelry company?
We are confident that a successful modern business means not only high sales, but also intangible brand values that both customers and employees can share.
Our social initiatives are built in a 360-degree format. That is, they cover all possible spheres of the company's life: employees (projects for material and psychological support), office (energy saving, recycling of garbage, waste paper, plastic), sponsored funds (financial support for their initiatives), production (metal recycling, increasing the share of eco-friendly laboratory stones). And, of course, we involve in our social projects and initiatives of clients.
So, on the eve of the New Year 2023, we decided to reconsider the usual idea of corporate gifts and together with the St. Petersburg inclusive workshops "Simple Things" created gift boxes for partners and friends of our network.
And in order to interest customers and tell a wide audience about the workshops, we came up with an interactive comic and published it on social networks. Subscribers could influence the plot and eventually win these New Year's boxes.
Another vivid example of an engaging social project is "Children to Children".
This is an all-Russian competition in which the children of our clients drew jewelry. According to the sketches of the winners, we made and released silver pendants – exact copies of their drawings. Part of the profit from the sale of these jewelry is sent to the charity fund "Children's Mission". And, of course, an action with extremely simple mechanics – "Kind Hearts", when we converted every like, "heart" in our social networks into real money for the projects of the Miss Universe charity foundation, TV presenter and singer Oksana Fedorova.
Social projects are an important part of the philosophy of the "585*GOLDEN" network. Through them we broadcast our values and build trusting relationships with customers in the long term.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
