The buying group’s 2018 Time Out conference was attended by approximately 150 members who represented 80 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
Managing director Colin Pocklington told Jeweller attendee feedback was that it had been one of Nationwide’s “best ever” events.
“We were pleasantly surprised, but somewhat shocked by the success of our buying day,” Pocklington said.
“All of the content was structured around our five strategies – with 21 action points – for members to prosper in 2018 and beyond.
“A few suppliers said it was the best ever. We will have a better idea in about a week when we collate the order totals,” he added.
Despite the current ‘flat’ conditions of the industry, Pocklington offered pragmatic but positive advice for jewellers.
“I presented an analysis showing that the difference between doing nothing, and implementing [our business strategies] could be a sales increase of up to 85 per cent. It sounds a lot, but one action alone makes a 14 to 18 per cent difference.”
“The stores that adopt any of our 21 action points will have a high probability of trading well,” he added.
Pocklington also enthused that the conference’s keynote speaker, John Russo was “outstanding”. Russo, a retails sales expert and former trainer at diamond brand Hearts on Fire, discussed how to increase sales using body language and psychology.
Luxury diamonds introduced
The founder of Indian diamond brand Divine Solitaires Jignesh Mehta flew in for the conference, presenting diamond and marketing support material to members.
On the decision to use the conference as the launching platform for the Indian diamond company, Pocklington noted members had expressed a need for “premium, quality loose diamonds to meet the needs of their customers.”
“Divine Solitaires will not suit all members’ customer bases as it is an upmarket, very high quality diamond; however, having the best quality diamonds on the market on an exclusive basis will help attract additional diamond sales,” Pocklington explained, adding 11 members completed orders “on the spot” while more are expected to come through in the coming days.
“We are planning to have Divine Solitaires deliver the first 20 orders in April, with a further 20 by the August Fair,” he added.
Nationwide’s 2018 Conference took place from 9 to 11 February in Canberra.
More reading
Nationwide Jewellers reveal international keynote speaker
Buying groups address challenging jewellery landscape