Accessories and Jewelry Buyers Take Note:
Retail Trend Trackers see a bump in sales of specialty accessories and souvenirs extending well into next year, as customers stretch their wardrobes and budgets with less expensive upgrades. Buyers and Sellers should look to new retail outlets, new wholesale suppliers, and to targeting ALL age groups to ride this wave. Below is a guest blog on this trend from Cool Jewels, a fashion trend wholesaler of jewelry and apparel.
– Top Ten Wholesale Blog
New Season Brings Increased Sales of Trendy Accessories and Fashion Jewelry
by Julie Hall for Cool Jewels
As Summer arrives, everyone embraces the change of season with hopes that our economic and weather chills are passing.
At the retail level, lower price-point items — perfumes, new lipstick shades, new fashion accessories — are selling well. Rather than automatically reaching for the latest, branded embroidered denim jeans (with a high price tag), shoppers are searching for brand new but value-priced fashion items to refresh their wardrobe.
Merchandising consultant Andrew Beauchamp, writing for SPECIALTY RETAIL / Souvenir Professionals, cited a Trend Forecast: “The retailing industry is predicting a rise in accessories sales over the next five quarters. With the current climate, customers will be buying more accessories and less apparel.”
Anticipating increased accessory sales, Cool Jewels® — a fashion trend wholesaler — increased its accessories lines to cover all corners of this demand. Cool Jewels Sales Manager Marc St. Pierre noted: “It’s important to have something for all ages. With that in mind, we expanded our Lil Fashion line of wholesale children’s jewelry targeted to girls ages four and up. We expanded our highly successful “Cool Jewels® Mood Jewelry,” offer a variety of Summer jewelry (Summer Shell and Surf Jewelry) and have expanded our line of trendy peace sign jewelry .” Marc notes: “Peace signs are resurgent for clothing, jewelry and accessories.”
Jewelry Resellers: Sales Manager St. Pierre highlined Cool Jewels’ successful Jewelry Display Packages, which offer complete lines and instant sales … at 200-to-400% mark-up. This turnkey display package is ideal for buyers seeking maximum returns with minimum investment.
Accessories Are Hot for All Ages: Merchandising consultant Andrew Beauchamp (cited above for specialty retail trends) has noted that many shops with a limited accessories presence are now expanding their lines to take advantage of customer demand for new fashion items that stay inside their budget lines.
An inline store at the local mall, Banana Republic, plans to open its first accessories concept store on May 15th. Also, many museum-type stores report that more than 40% of their overall sales now come from jewelry. Many such retail outlets are expanding their offerings and targeting all age groups.
Tonia Wells of the Maryland Zoo confirmed that her Children and Teen Trend items are indeed selling quite well. She cited her store’s “Into The Wild ©” animal necklace (from Phillips International, Inc./ Cool Jewels) as one of her strongest sellers. “Kids just love their Animal Mood necklaces and the combination Peace Sign/Animal necklaces,” said Wells. “Sometimes kids buy two or three pieces to wear all at once.”
Refreshing Inventory: Change of season and change of customer demands makes it important for retailers to freshen up their inventory – repositioning lines, displaying jewelry by color, and stocking some new trendy items (such as accessories with re-popularized Peace Sign motifs) to capture the sale.
