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New York--Despite holiday surveys ranking gift cards as popular presents this year, many jewelers have said gift certificates have been a very minor part of their business this season, citing flexible return and exchange policies at their stores.

Additionally, self-purchasers have yet to show themselves at independent jewelry stores, with most customers buying gifts for others.

This is the sixth story in National Jeweler’s weekly Exclusive Retail Spotlight series, which focuses on a specific trend influencing the retail jewelry market. This week, jewelers discussed self-purchasing customers and the popularity of gift certificates.

NORTHEAST
Very few customers have been self-purchasers at Jay Roberts Jeweler in Marlton, N.J., according to owner Jake Spigelman.

“The majority of gifts bought are for others,” Spigelman said, “a loved one, a spouse, girlfriends, kids. Ninety-eight percent of gifts are for someone else.”

Most self-purchasers are men buying themselves a watch, he added, but in most cases even that is a gift.

Gift certificates are offered at Spigelman’s store, though he said it’s a very minor part of the business.

“Everyone likes to have something in their hand to present,” he said, “even if they’re going to do a gift card, they might as well put money in an envelope. There isn’t enough thought in gift certificates.”

Most stores have refund and exchange policies, Spigelman said, so a gift card can show that a shopper didn’t take time or effort to choose a present.

Most gift certificate purchasers only take a few months to redeem their gift certificates at jay Roberts Jeweler, and it isn’t difficult to get customers to spend more than what their certificate is worth.

“A lot of times, people are trying to buy a larger item and might ask those they know getting them gifts to buy them a gift card toward this item,” Spigelman said.

The extent of self-purchasers at David Craig jewelers in Langhorne, Pa., has been spouses bringing each other in to pick out gifts, said owner David Rotenberg.

“I really haven’t seen it,” Rotenberg said of self purchasers. “I’m sure they’re mixed in, but more people are buying gifts.”

The jeweler also offers gift certificates at his store, but they haven’t been selling this season.

“It’s not a big item with us,” Rotenberg said of the gift certificates. “If people can’t make up their minds about what to buy, then we offer them the gift certificate. But we have a very open return policy, so they can’t get stuck.”

SOUTHEAST
Wilson Glasgow, owner of Elizabeth Bruns Jewelers in Charlotte, N.C., said he hasn’t seen any self-purchasers this holiday season, and has some ideas as to why he hasn’t.

“There’s no confidence in America in our leadership, which filters down to the thought, ‘Where are we going? What’s our direction?’” Glasgow said, adding it makes consumers hesitant to spend money.

“Plus, the Southeast has been hurt dramatically by the problem with the banks,” he said. “Two major banks down here are not paying dividends, and many customers rely on that for discretionary income, and that money has been swiped out of the economy.”

While all this is presenting a challenge for the jeweler, he remains optimistic.

“We’ll survive,” Glasgow said. “We’ve done everything we can do. We’ve got a mix of merchandise, we advertise properly, we just have to wait for the consumers to be ready.”

As far as gift certificates go, Glasgow said they are rarely sold, and that they are a minor part of the business.

Self-purchasers at Allen’s Jewelers in Albany, Ga. have mostly been men buying themselves watches, according to owner Steve Allen, but he said it’s hard to say why people are buying for themselves this holiday season.

Allen also offers gift certificates to his store, but he said he’s only sold two so far this season.

MIDWEST
Gift cards are not among the popular items at Garfinkles Fine Jewelry in Highland Park, Ill., this holiday season, said co-owner Jill Garfinkle. In the past year and a half, she’s sold just one.

“I can understand that,” she said, when told of holiday surveys that rank gift cards among the most popular presents of the season. “My family likes gift cards ... and I [buy them] for other people. But I think people come into a jewelry store and want a piece of jewelry to surprise someone with. They want to go home with a present.”

As for self-purchasers, Garfinkle said that crowd hasn’t shown up at her store just yet.

“I’ll see that after Christmas. I don’t see it right now,” she said. “After a holiday if a woman doesn’t get something ... she comes and buys.”

Neither gift cards nor self-purchasers have comprised a large part of holiday sales to date for Gene Gragg at Metal Works Fine Jewelry Inc. in Yorktown, Ind.

He said his gift card sales are down slightly as compared to years past while self-purchasing is on par with last year.

“As far as women buying for themselves, that’s been fairly steady for me,” Gragg said.

SOUTH CENTRAL
Gift certificate sales are up at Cunningham Jewelers in Tulsa, Okla., due to the Groupon-like, half-price deal the retailer posted on its Facebook page one week.

Vicki Cunningham said she wasn’t certain customers paid attention to the store’s Facebook page until they posted the coupon deal. “I was getting really frustrated with that,” she said.

But they sold about 70 in one week after putting the offer up on the social networking site, renewing her faith in the power of Facebook.

Self-purchasers also have been buying at Cunningham Jewelers, though not more so than in seasons past. Cunningham said she expects to see more customers buying presents for themselves this week.

“I am banking on it,” she said.

Self-purchasing and gift card sales are comparable to last year’s holiday season at Newton’s Jewelers in Fort Smith, Ark.

Owner Kelly Newton said gift cards are never big sellers at his store during the holidays.

“I guess people just prefer to give something other than a card,” he said.

He adds that the store has a very lenient exchange and refund policy. If a customer buys a gift that somehow doesn’t work for the recipient, they are free to exchange it or receive a refund.

WEST
Tom Hart, of Hart Jewelers, said they do sell a handful of gift cards around the holiday season but it’s not a major category for the retailer. That hasn’t changed.

“This year, we really haven’t had the request for them,” he said.

Hart said the amount of people buying for themselves also has been on par with last year.

One interesting shift he did notice this year is the amount of male shoppers who were out earlier in the season. “It seemed like we had a lot of people who were just trying to make an effort to get their shopping done,” he said.

At Butterfield Jewelers in Albuquerque, N.M., Mike Butterfield said he’s sold very few gift cards, which are never huge during the holiday season.

He said hasn’t seen many shoppers self-purchasing either.

“It’s mostly been buying for other people,” he said.