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Several years ago, a consortium of privately-owned and independent jewelers joined forces to create an operational group composed of management from each store. The purpose was to create a user group with other retailers in the industry to discuss business obstacles and opportunities — this group became known as the Luxury Jewelers Resource Group (LJRG).

The banners under this group include Fink’s Jewelers, Hamilton Jewelers, Hyde Park Jewelers, Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry, London Jewelers, Lux Bond & Green, Tapper’s Diamond & Fine Jewelry, Tivol and Traditional Jewelers. The more the individuals of LJRG began to interact, the more it became evident that they all shared the same issues with store operations. Together, these companies identified the need for a POS upgrade due to the EMV mandates and changing security policies, and embarked on a journey to find a new system that could provide operational support across the brands.

Unlike the standard selection process, finding the right solution was quite different for LJRG because the management of the independent jewelers met regularly to collectively determine their needs — thus, eliminating the need for a consultant.
“Together we were able to identify that 80% of what each brand used the solution for was common,” says Tim Claire, COO of London Jewelers. “This made for a unanimous decision because we all shared the same needs and wants — and still allowed for 20% of customization for each retailer.”

In the Spring of 2014 the Group unanimously selected Raymark’s end-to-end suite of solutions for point-of-sale (including mobile), clienteling, merchandising, replenishment, open-to-buy planning, purchasing, repairs, reporting and analytics. The solution was selected for its ability to cater to the jewelry vertical as well as to LJRG’s specific niche requirements.

“The holistic, real-time solution provides each LJRG member with a 360-degree view of its customers and business operations across all channels. Thanks to the truly integrated omnichannel retailing solution, LJRG members improved organizational efficiency by automating processes related to key areas such as customer orders and repairs, access to centralized data, and the capacity to manage and track inventory across stores and e-commerce.
“The ability to support serialization as well as repair tracking for jewelry was crucial in our decision to partner with Raymark,” says Todd Stafford, VP of information system for Fink’s Jewelers.

The first group of retailers went live on the system in March, with the solution going live across all banners by summer 2015. With several companies involved obstacles were expected, but there have been very few. All of the retailers have known each other for a number of years, allowing them to understand each other’s needs very well.

“This helped all of us maintain open communications and streamline the process,” says Claire. We’ve been able to communicate quickly and efficiently, keeping a tight rein on the project. This also provided us the advantage of owning the project due to the strength of the group.”