Josh Zarb, CEO IJC, told Jeweller that the group still had more than 100 expressions of interest pending, and that the number of member stores was expected to increase in the coming weeks.
“We’ve been fortunate in that we've had expressions of interest evenly spread throughout the whole country, [and] we have members who have joined us from basically all states and territories so far,” Zarb said.
While the timing of the launch was complicated by COVID-19, the pandemic forced IJC to adapt its processes, particularly in communication.
“The big challenge was the isolation as I would have ordinarily had face-to-face meetings, but I became a good friend of Zoom. Now I don't know how I would live without it!” Zarb said.
“COVID-19 allowed us to take a step back; it allowed us to really refine what we were doing with our resources.
"We spent the time still assisting retailers – we helped members with marketing, we turned on all of our communications platforms and put together private social media groups – and it made for the perfect opportunity now to hit the ground running above our targeted number.”
IJC has received positive feedback from its first 44 members, with its technological assets and “community of like-minded people” impressing retailers during the lockdown period.
“Everyone has been very surprised with how many resources we've got behind us in such a short amount of time,” Zarb said.
“Members were presented with our entire scope of assistance and our network of people; it’s not just our staff, I've got an amazing network of third-party resources to help our retailers, which were built through my industry relationships over more than 20 years.”
He added, “The group was always set up to be a smaller group [of] really good quality retailers and supplier partners. And so far, touching a lot of wood, we've ticked every box. We've got nearly all the suppliers on board [that we set out to work with] and we're working through that process.”
When asked about IJC’s supplier relationships, Zarb said, “I always had a core group of people that I wanted to work with. At IJC, we do not buy and hold any stock ourselves so we definitely want to work and support the local supplier network.
“We have a vision to work with good suppliers and work with them more one-on-one, through things like product curation, ranges within ranges, and working with them on web and digital strategy. Having a tighter working relationship with our suppliers, as well as retailers, is what's important to us.”
In the near-term, IJC will focus on building more supplier relationships and finalising trading terms, rolling out its Christmas marketing plan, and preparing to launch more digital features and support for retailers, including custom design.
More reading:
Buying groups confirmed for Sydney Jewellery Fair
New jewellery buying group formed