It’s not too late to make sure your website is ready for the holiday customer. Find out the top ten things you can do to create an enticing, exciting and effective holiday website experience. Sponsored by Gemfind.
The holidays are coming. You're on the clock now. Let Kate Peterson send you into holiday action mode, with a three-month plan that's inspired by Santa himself. Learn everything old Kris Kringle knows about keeping a happy workshop, keeping the elves busy and happy, and how to make this your best-prepared holiday season ever. Bonus: Kate will provide you with a full three-month calendar of to-do's to take back to your store
He might not have a crystal ball … or does he? Marty Huwitz of MVI Marketing previews business and product trends for the coming holiday season based on extensive analysis and economic data.
Okay, folks, it's time for a holiday attitude adjustment! In this special lunch session, Shane Decker lays out a plan that should help any store close a higher percentage of its sales. The solutions to low closing ratios are often surprisingly simple. Get the secrets here and be ready to bring them back to your store. Great merchandising and clever marketing don't mean a thing if you can't close sales. Learn how to do it better here.
Special introduction provided by Andrew Rickard, Vice President RDI Diamonds.
(Important note: Seating for this session includes lunch and costs $25. Reserve your place here. Ticket sales also available on site, but attendees with advance tickets will be seated first.)
There's still time to make your coming holiday season even more profitable. David Brown shows you what you can do now to boost your fourth-quarter profits.
Four of the country’s most innovative retailers share their holiday plans in a wide-ranging conversation about holiday events, marketing, staff training, inventory and more. Find out from our panelists what works in their stores. Hosted by Terry Chandler. Featuring Cathy Calhoun and other retailers TBA.
Presenter Richard Baker, CEO of Premium Knowledge and author of the soon to be published Bourdieu's Demon, shows how this new information age has affected buying patterns the upper middle class,
something he calls "enlightened" expenditure of discretionary income. His presentation will combine lecture and workshop to help the audience understand how income and social status affect buying patterns and how to use these when preparing marketing and sales campaigns.
Light refreshments will be served. Seating is limited.
Sponsored by AGTA and Kimberly Collins Colored Gems
Some jewelers love the holiday season. Others dread it. But what is not in dispute is that the holiday season provides jewelers with their biggest opportunity of the year to meet new customers both inside the store and out.
This year's SMART Show Dallas keynote speaker, networking and approachability expert Scott Ginsberg is here to help you build more and better relationships than ever before, and how to become a more effective, more engaging communicator ... one conversation at a time.
Also: don’t miss Scott’s bonus session on Sunday, How to Become a Networking Super Hero, at 2 PM in the Marketing and Sales Experience area. (Limited audience capacity)
David Brown fills you in on the optimum inventory levels, inventory mix and price points, plus effective management of new inventory and ways you can use the fourth quarter to clear out old merchandise. Get ready to learn strategies for holiday profits, as well as common holiday mistakes to avoid.
Are holiday shoppers finding you online? Suereea Matthews will share with you the most effective ways to affect your search engine rankings through the power of social media optimization. Leave with an action plan that can get you moving up the charts right away. (Plus: visit Suereea at the Social Media RX-mas Smart Station and have her assess your social media presence.)
Here comes the happy couple! And it's time for four top CAD designers to battle it out to create the best possible design for their engagement ring. Designers will have two hours to create a design that meets the customers' specifications. Details of the design will be delivered on the spot. Plus, making the pressure even more intense, all of you will be watching! Each CAD artist will use their own style and method of creating a CAD-designed masterpiece. Judges will also score competitors on their presentations and sales skills. Bench, bench supplies and tools provided by Stuller. Competitors sponsored by Gemvision.
Get ready for ideas and inspiration to make this your best holiday season ever! This inteactive exhibit will spin you into action with plans you can implement now to attract cutomers and increase sales. You will find examples of marketing and sales programs that have already been proven successful. Get your holiday ispiration here. Tours start with a visit to Santa. Yep. Santa is waiting for you!
How can your shop not only survive, but thrive, during the coming holiday rush? Talk to our experts and other members of the bench community to share best practices in bench management. Plus, check out tools and supplies that can make your bench work faster and better during the pressure-packed days ahead. Join the conversation and share your challenges and ideas.
Ready for 10 ingenious ways to add holiday spirit to your store this year? Larry Johnson and Howard Gurock are here to help. Don’t just drag out the same holiday décor from last year. Learn a fresh approach to lighting and décor that will create a holiday atmosphere and communicate your brand, while still keeping the focus where it should be ... on the products you want to sell.
Talking too much. It's a sales-killer. Learn the right moment to quit chattering and close the sale. Shane Decker shares with you the top 20 signals a customer gives you when they are ready to buy. Boost your holiday sales skills with this essential sales primer.
Special introduction provided by Andrew Rickard, Vice President RDI Diamonds.
The duel ends here as our four top CAD designers return for a final showdown. The assignment: create a special suite of earrings and pendants to meet our fictional customer's requirements. Each designer will have two hours to complete the design, which they will then deliver to the "customer". Don't miss the action. Bench, bench supplies and tools provided by Stuller. Competitors sponsored by Gemvision.
Who will it be? Our judges will be picking a winner of our hotly-contested CAD Pressure Challenge, and it's not going to be an easy task. Be sure to be there to cheer the winner. Sponsored by Stuller and Gemvision.
The holiday season offers a spectacular opportunity to show your company off at its best, but this time of year is just a mere extension of how proper marketing and sales initiatives should be implemented all year long so that the holiday season reaps the most rewards. Konstantina Mahlia, of Mahlia Collection in Tucson, AZ, is a master at enticing holiday shoppers through advertising, social media and her website creating a strong outreach to holiday customers long before the season arrives! Kate Peterson will interivew Konstantina to learn how she is creating holiday connections with her customers, both in her store and online. Let Konstantina’s energy and creativity inspire you to create a "Bold and Beautiful" holiday experience in your store.
You don't need a huge studio and camera crew to create a customer-attracting holiday video. Shane O'Neill shows you how easy it can to be produce video to use on websites, social media, and in newsletters. See examples of successful low-cost campaigns and check out a simple video set-up that will let you produce videos yourself. (Also: see Shane in action at the Video Action SMART Station and try your hand at making a video. Get ready for your close-up!)
Don't miss out on bridal sales during the coming holiday season. Sally Furrer helps you build a merchandising plan to capitalize on fourth-quarter bridal business. Develop a plan of attack that will guarantee you make the sale and earn your store many new lifetime customers. While bridal customers shop online, the overwhelming majority still make their big purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. Be sure you're ready!
Good service is no longer good enough. Even excellent service doesn’t quite cut it. These days, you need to “wow” the customer with an experience they will never forget. A “wow” customer experience means bigger sales, repeat business, more references, and many more good things. Make the commitment now to start "wow"-ing your customers. Shane Decker will help you get started.
Special introduction provided by Andrew Rickard, Vice President RDI Diamonds.
Watch four top bench jewelers show their mastery of this lightweight, naturally white and luxurious precious metal. The challenge: modify a gent's palladium signet ring, adding one center stone and a variety of small stones to customize it for the customer. Bench, bench supplies and tools provided by Stuller. Sponsored by Palladium Alliance International.
Get ready for ideas and inspiration to make this your best holiday season ever! This inteactive exhibit will spin you into action with plans you can implement now to attract cutomers and increase sales. You will find examples of marketing and sales programs that have already been proven successful. Get your holiday ispiration here. Tours start with a visit to Santa. Yep. Santa is waiting for you!
Join Linus Drogs and Chris Ploof from the Palladium Alliance International for guidance on creating beautiful, durable palladium jewelry. December is one of the top months for wedding proposals. Will you have everything you need to create the emotional masterpiece your customer is asking for? Find out what other top bench jewelers are planning to do during the busy season ahead.
Key fact: 15% of proposals happen in December, more than any other month. Are you ready for the bridal rush? Join Diamond Council of America President/CEO Terry Chandler for an in-depth look at the all-important bridal category and its impact during the holiday season. Terry will share insights into the bridal consume as well as specific ways you can maximize bridal sales during the coming holidays.
What are you known for in your community? How can you become more visible, more credible, and simply more memorable in the eyes of your customers? In this special bonus session, SMART Show keynote speaker Scott Ginsberg offers practical lessons teaching the essential skill of creating an unforgettable personal brand that generates more business. If you loved Scott's Saturday morning keynote, attend this session for valuable follow-up.
Four jewelers receive the same engraving project to embellish in their own style. Each will approach this challenge in a unique way with only two hours to complete the job. Who will be the artist best able to create art in such an "engrave" situation? Come find out. All pieces will be on display for the opportunity to admire the artistry and style of each competitor. Benches, bench supplies and tools supplied by Stuller.
Get your hands on the greatest bench tools, tech and supplies. Experts demo tools and give you holiday tips. Try your hand and show off your skill at this interactive event. Benches, bench supplies and tools are provided by Stuller and Stuller partners.
How would you like a $40,000 evening or a $100,000 weekend, all with a marketing investment of just a few hundred dollars? It really is possible, when you discover the secrets of doing a direct-mail driven "private sale" for the holidays. That's just one of the stunningly effective techniques that will be revealed in this session from Jim Ackerman. Sponsored by Lashbrook.
Your website can be a powerful tool to drive customers in store — or it can turn people off before they ever walk through your doors. With over 30% of all engagements happening in the fourth quarter, now is the perfect time to revamp your website to capture next year's brides and grooms. You'll learn what brides and grooms care about most (and if you think they care about the same things, think again!), how they research, how much they spend, and how to show them you've got what they are looking for.
With a deck overlooking Grapevine Lake and a can't-miss dance floor, the Glass Cactus Nightclub at the Gaylord Resort is the ideal spot for the Dallas version of our famous Sunday night networking party. Mix and mingle with complimentary drinks and Texas style hors d'oeuvres. And because it wouldn't be a party without dancing, the LimeLight band will provide the music in styles ranging from Frank Sinatra, to Earth Wind and Fire, to the hits of today. Shuttle buses will run between the Glass Cactus and the Gaylord Texan from 5:45 - 9:30 p.m.
Holiday events are the subject, and our panel of innovative retailers are here to share their knowledge. Learn how our panelists threw their most successful, highest-revenue-generating parties. Find out the planning and implementation secrets that separate the ho-hum from the ho-ho-hopping. Host Nick Failla, no stranger to event planning and implementation, will be on hand to guide the conversation.
Retailers TBA
Before you start putting up those holiday decorations, make sure you have taken the action needed to make your store sparkle. Keely Grice offers ten free (or low-cost) action steps that will make your customers feel they're walking into a brand new store. Get started now with Keely's help.
Skill, patience and the ability to see a finished jewelry piece in three dimensions. Those are the key skills you need to deliver a hand-carved wax to a customer in two hours. The pressure is on in the SMART Show Dallas's final challenge. Waxes must meet customer requirements and customer specifications. Benches and supplies provided by Stuller.
All aboard for a magical holiday tour!
That’s right, step right this way. Organizers of The SMART Jewelry Show Dallas have brought together best-of-best holiday ideas in the Holiday Idea Center -- 3,000 square feet of pure Christmas. Starting at the North Pole near the entrance of the exhibition area, Holiday Idea Center tours will give retail jewelers an overview of the creative, inspiring, actionable ideas in five key areas, including: Holiday ads; Party planning; Promotions; Holiday trimmings; and Training the elves. At the end of the tour, Santa's helpers will provide a detailed Guide to the Holiday Idea Center that will include of map of the area. Santas helpers will also be on hand to answer any questions regarding where certain holiday ideas can be found. Be sure to visit the Holiday Idea Center for ideas from holiday promotions to parties, to gift-wrapping to gift-with-purchase ideas, and just about everything in between.
How can your shop not only survive, but thrive, during the coming holiday rush? Talk to our experts and other members of the bench community to share best practices in bench management. Plus, check out tools and supplies that can make your bench work faster and better during the pressure-packed days ahead. Join the conversation and share your challenges and ideas.
The holidays are coming. You're on the clock now. Let Kate Peterson send you into holiday action mode, with a three-month plan that's inspired by Santa himself. Learn everything old Kris Kringles knows about keeping a happy workshop, keeping the elves busy and happy, and how to make this your best-prepared holiday season ever. Bonus: Kate will provide you with a full three-month calendar of to-do's to take back to your store.
Is your website holiday-ready? Harout Markarian, who has reviewed retailer websites at The SMART Show Chicago since the show launched in 2009, will share with you his website review list and tell you what you need to do to make your website draws new customers this holiday season.
Be here for the announcement of the big winner of the Bench Pressure Challenge. Each contestant deserves an award for competing in this challenge. Cheers for all!