Professional skills competitions among the traders in the jewellery sector are gaining importance as a market development instrument. The growing interest towards the contest ‘The Best Jewelry Store of the Year’ expressed by foreign jewelers once again proves its significance both at the national level and internationally.
The main goal of the contest was to recognize, support and promote the leading representatives of the jewellery retail, the best Russian and CIS jewellery salons, public recognition and promotion of their experience and their contribution to the higher culture of jewellery trading in retail business. The contest recognizes not only the major players having strong positions on the market but also smaller-scale retailers operating successfully and developing every bit as responsible and dynamic as the ‘federal giants’. Each of them created their niche market. And there are leaders in each niche.
The international contest ‘The Best Jewelry Store of the Year’ was established in 2002 by the ‘Navigator For Jewellery Trade’ Magazine and is always held with the support of major partner-companies like PO Krystall (Smolensk), Almaz-Holding Jewellery Company, Adamant Jewellery Factory, Estet Jewellery House and Choron Diamond Company, a permanent diamond partner of the contest.
This summer, forty five jewellery stores and chains of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan were the winners in various nominations at the 12th awards ceremony. This key event in the jewellery industry brought together a record number of participants (about 1,000) and visitors including the foreign guests. The first awarding ceremony of ‘The Best jewellery Store of the Year’ was held in the Gostinny Dvor and had five nominations only, so a small hall was sufficient for this ceremony. However, the popularity of the contest has been steadily growing as well as the number of the participants and guests and the geography of the event has become wider.
Receiving ‘The Best Jewellery Store of the Year’ prize shows that the merits of a store were acknowledged and it is highly valued by the leading jewellery market experts. ‘The Best Jewellery Store of the Year’ title offers serious competitive advantages and unlimited PR opportunities to a retailer. The contest winners are highly credited by their consumers, colleagues, partners and state authorities. No wonder, that 50 percent of participants take part in the contest every year. Having received the award “The Best”, no one is willing to give it to the competitors.
All contest nominees undergo a strict selection process. The judges at a contest are the world–class experts in design, psychology of the jewellery art and in trade organization. To avoid any subjectivity, there are no manufacturers among the judges who could be interested in the victory of some certain participants. The judges evaluate the salons mainly from the standpoint of a customer – nice interior, quality jewellery, range of products of great current interest, client satisfaction, etc.
From year to year, the contest has been developing and it enters a new qualitative level, attracts a greater number of market players and draws the attention of the key world jewellery associations and brands. Quite many international companies are eager to enter the Russian market as they consider it promising for the development and when they come to Russia they need not rack their brains about looking for new partners having excellent reputation.
The unique format of the event looks more like an amicable meeting. The award ceremony traditionally starts with awarding the “TOP-100. One Hundred Best Jewelry Stores in Russia” Badge of Honor to the participants of the contest. The project participants include the stores of spotless reputation, the industry pace-setters. It is followed by awarding the winners in ‘Special awards’ nominations, where the stores are acknowledged for ‘special’ merits like the management of the sales, service, promotion, conception of a store, staff training, ‘The best decoration of the shop’ (a one-of-a-kind salon interior and design), ‘Precious jewellery retail chains’ consisting of at least 5 stores, ‘The best watch shop’, ‘The best management of the sales and culture’ and the Grand Prix. The contest winners in the nominations are awarded Commemorative Diplomas and Pallas Athena Silver Statuette.
Among the all-around leaders and Grand Prix winners, there are already an Almaz jewellery company (Blagoveshchensk, 2007), Prestizh jewellery salon (Ukhta, 2008), Remiks jewellery house (Krasnoyarsk, 2009), Zhemchuzhina jewellery salon (Vologda, 2010), Tutankhamon jewellery store (Tula, 2011), Krystall jewellery house (Lipetsk, 2012) and, finally, Estet jewellery salon (Tomsk, 2013).
Striking for receiving recognition from the professionals, the stores develop in the competition environment and this is a continuous process. As the result of such a competition the whole industry is a winner. When a jewellery store receives such an award, it also gets a serious incentive to improve and become even better. Today it could be acknowledged as the best in the interior design, tomorrow it could be acknowledged as the best in servicing, and so on. There is much sense in arranging such contests in the country stretching over huge territory, it is of great importance for the industry on the whole”, - noted Rajiv Singh, manager on business development at H. K. Designs, India.
During the period of its existence, the contest won the recognition both of the jewellers and among the agencies and organizations that arrange and supervise the Russian economy on the whole and the jewellery industry in particular.
The awarding ceremony was held in a new format in 2012 and for the first time it was a charity one. The charity (a store charity was a mandatory condition) was added to the main conditions for the participants eager to win.
Social responsibility is a prime direction in which the contest will develop in future, and the second – the use of innovation technologies enabling the higher business efficiency (from the creative work in the social networks to the warehouse inventory management optimization).
Veronica Novoselova, Rough&Polished
