What are the prerequisites for joining?
We look for integrity as an important quality in a new member. Additionally, operating a jewellery business with high standards in presentation and excellent customer service and product knowledge is always preferred.
What are the benefits of joining?
There are no management fee, no setup fee, and joining fee - you simply join Showcase, a member-owned organisation, while retaining your own name and brand.
Supplier discounts are passed directly to our members and not kept by Showcase to fund other ‘free’ benefits. Showcase offers unbeatable insurance and EFTPOS rates and free Australian Retailers Association (ARA) membership, and the equivalent resource for our New Zealand members. Other services include:
- Leasing information to help members negotiate.
- Information from Retail Edge – pooled data which members can access to manage their stock efficiently.
- Services such as lawyers, tax accountants and other business services for our members all at discounted rates.
- In-house training resources for staff, sales, management training.
- In-house marketing department which offers customised catalogues, an online toolbox for all your marketing and promotional needs, graphic design, print management, and digital asset creation.
- Website development and management and in-house product photography, videos, and free image libraries.
- Access to our internal diamond department, including exclusive rights to Passion8 and Dreamtime brands. We also carry certified Argyle pinks, yellows, and white diamonds.
Finally, we are the only buying group that returns its profits back to members. Our members ‘own’ Showcase - this is a distinctive feature from other buying groups.
What is the cost of membership?
Depending on how you want to structure your business, it can be as low as 1.5 per cent of your purchases, with maximum supplier discounts going to our members. As mentioned, there are no joining or management fees.
At Showcase you become far more than just a member; you have part-ownership of the group. Ask yourself, where do the profits go in other groups? Our members receive those profits directly.
Has your traditional marketing changed in the past two years?
Traditional media – while a small portion of our offering – still plays an important role, especially in regional areas. We also present every campaign in a full digital package, making it easy to apply across any channel to suit our members individual needs. In recent years we have in fact seen some resurgence in traditional channels such as television commercials and radio.
What unique benefits are offered?
Showcase Jewellers is a member-owned buying group that operates exclusively for independent jewellery retailers. All profits go back to our members – we exist purely for them to thrive.
During COVID we paid $4 million in cash back to our members to help them go through those difficult times. In the past two years we declared out of Showcase’s profits $1.3 million back to our members.
We are the only buying group that distributes its profits back to members whereas the other buying group profits are retained by the individual owners.
What kinds of promotional support will you offer members?
Showcase has a dedicated in-house marketing staff which members go to for campaign creation, graphic design, product imagery, lifestyle imagery, print management and store traffic generators.
One such example is an exclusive member offer of free local and overseas island holidays for their customers, allowing stores to offer value and incentive-based sales tactics, rather than discounting, which can be felt to undermine the value and craftsmanship of their fine jewellery.
How will you support local jewellery manufacturers?
Our manufacturing partners are very important. This year we are launching our ‘limited edition’ competition. The winning jeweller can have their design manufactured in small volumes!
How have you improved your B2B and internal technology?
We are well equipped in e-commerce, with an internationally linked B2B portals. Our platform covers everything from access to diamonds and exclusive overseas products as well as training and product information.
We also provide policy manuals and staff induction material, customised to suit individual retailers. We have a popular Facebook group that is very active and can offer all types of advice.
What are the major events your buying group has planned for this year?
We are planning more overseas trips for our members. It is important that we are across new products and new buying opportunities. We also plan to run our two conferences — the first in February in Hamilton Island and the second in August in Sydney.
In what unique ways will your buying group benefit members in 2023?
We are working with suppliers on an exclusive product for our members which will be announced shortly! We are planning to run different training sessions free of charge for our members and their staff in regional areas.
Our marketing department is developing additional digital tools for our members to utilise to manage and increase their digital presence and advertising.