The buying group had announced several new products in the months leading up to the annual conference, and received impressive feedback about the new offerings from the 135 retail members that attended.
Nationwide director Collin Pocklington said he was pleased with members’ response to the new initiatives, and noticed a strong interest in Gabi Tolkowsky’s new Astralis diamond cut.
“[The Astralis went] exceptionally well,” he told Jeweller. “All day we had people queued up for a chance to buy them. It could quite possibly be the biggest product launch we’ve ever done.”
Pocklington credited the prestige surrounding the Tolkowsky brand and the product’s versatility for customers as key contributors to the success.
“Obviously there is that heritage value because it’s coming from Gabi Tolkowsky, and the marketing support that comes with that brand,” he explained. “It also fits what is happening in the market. Over the last five years, more customers have been wanting jewellery made up for them.
“So with this, customers can come in and say ‘make me an earring or pendant or ring’, and the jeweller can say they’ve got this diamond by the most famous diamond cutter and set it in custom jewellery.”
Nationwide Director Barry Jackson was also happy with members’ fascination with the new website Nationwide was preparing.
“The interest in our new digital marketing solution was well above expectations,” he said. “We expect a very high take up of these websites, with the majority of members choosing the full eCommerce option. With the technology platform we have chosen, the cost to members is less than half of what you would expect an individual website to cost.”
Pocklington said that fully constructed website samples were almost ready and would be on display at the Sydney Jewellery Fair for retailers to browse.
The choice of Darwin as the host city for the conference also proved popular, providing a lot of activities and something a little different for the attendees.
“We try and have our conference somewhere warm for the southern state members to get away from winter,” Pocklington said. “We picked Darwin because we thought that maybe not many people had been there before. We had a cocktail function, went to a night market and after the conference we had a side trip to Kakadu.”
There was even a crocodile and a snake on hand for members to pose with for photos, something Nationwide member and JAA President Peter Beever had no fears in doing (pictured).
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