SUNDAY

OCTOBER 25

Selling Natural Diamonds and Lab Created: Maximizing Holiday Margins. Make this Holiday Season a Record Breaker!

Lab-created prices are still falling. The average lab sale has slid from roughly $1,500 to $1,200, and the direction hasn’t changed. If lab makes up 60+ percent of your case, that trend isn’t a category question — it’s a cash flow question, and it could take a serious bite out of next year’s revenue. We will Share information regarding the most desired diamond inventory with the highest demand.

Shane Decker, President, Shane Decker Sales Academy
Asaf Herskovitz, CEO, GN Diamond

Buy Better Sell Better: Making Smarter Buying Decisions That Drive Profit

Profitable inventory starts with great buying decisions. The question isn’t simply What should I buy? It’s What has earned the right to be in my cases? In this session, you will learn how to take a more strategic approach to purchasing inventory, based on what your business is actually telling you. Discover how to use sales performance, inventory levels, turn, and Open-to-Buy to determine what to buy, how much to buy, and when to buy it. You’ll leave with practical strategies to reduce overbuying, put more dollars behind proven sellers, and build an inventory mix that generates sales instead of tying up cash.

Becka Johnson Kibby, G.G., SHRM-CP
CEO, Edge Retail Academy

The Big Jewelry Trends to Acquire for This Holiday Season

Jewelry shoppers follow the trends and will be seeking them out to give as gifts. But do you have them? Attend this session to hear from the writers who track the trends in real time to hear what you should buy, why, and where you can find them on the show floor.

Moderator: Michelle Orman, Last Word Communications

Panelists:

• Becky Stone, Diamonds in the Library writer and INSTORE contributor
  
• Jennifer Heebner, freelance jewelry writer and INSTORE contributor
  
• Emili Vesilind, editor-in-chief and jewelry trends expert for Gem + Jewel

From Store Ready to Customer Delighted

The holiday season creates tremendous opportunities—but great sales don’t happen by accident. In this practical, fast-paced session, Jimmy DeGroot shares what sales professionals can do before and during the holidays to make the most of every customer interaction. From preparing the store and your team to creating memorable experiences, building relationships, maximizing every opportunity, and truly delighting the customer, you’ll walk away with simple ideas you can put to work immediately. Less holiday stress, better customer experiences, and more sales!

Jimmy DeGroot, Sales Trainer & Management Consultant, Train Retail

Show Floor Happy Hour

MONDAY

OCTOBER 26

Shop The Show Smarter: How to Make Every Vendor Meeting at JA New York More Productive

A successful jewelry show isn’t measured by how many booths you visit. It’s measured by what you accomplish while you’re at each booth. Face-to-face time with your vendor partners is one of the most valuable opportunities a jewelry show provides. In this session, you’ll learn how to prepare for more productive vendor meetings, ask better questions, evaluate new merchandise with greater discipline, and uncover opportunities that go far beyond placing an order. You’ll leave with a practical game plan and vendor-meeting checklist designed to help you make better buying decisions, strengthen vendor partnerships, and turn your time at JA New York into greater sales and profitability back home.

Becka Johnson Kibby, G.G., SHRM-CP
CEO, Edge Retail Academy

The Order You Write This Week: Buying Better With Data and AI

Every buyer at this show is making the same decision: what to order now that will sell before it ages. In this session, Elle Hill will show how retailers can make that decision with evidence rather than memory. Using the sales and inventory data most stores already hold, she will walk through five buying disciplines: planning open-to-buy by category, buying from sell-through, scoring vendors on return on inventory, filling the gaps customers are already asking about, and planning the exit before a piece arrives. She will then demonstrate where AI now does the heavy lifting in forecasting and buy planning. Attendees will leave with a buying worksheet they can use on the show floor the same afternoon.

Elle Hill, founder and CEO, Hill & Co.

How to Get the Best Credit and Memo Terms from Your Suppliers

Cash flow is critical to retailing, and having better credit allows you to free up your cash by encouraging your vendors to extend more credit and larger amounts of memo goods. In this session, Andrew Rickard of JBT will explain why reporting your data regularly can help you obtain better credit terms, as well as how JBT membership can help you be proactive and “own your own credit journey” by allowing you to submit your own trades.

Andrew Rickard, president, Jewelers Board of Trade

Show Floor Happy Hour

Networking Event

Join Jewelers of America and JA New York for a complimentary reception on Monday, October 26, from 6:30–8:00 PM at Latitude39 in Hudson Yards. The evening will bring together members of the jewelry community for connection and conversation, honoring the shared history and continued partnership between Jewelers of America and JA New York. Space is limited, and advanced RSVP is required.

RSVP Here