Pandora’s quality and attention to detail has customers eyeing up their next purchase before they have even completed the first, and the brand managed to expose the ‘hidden kleptomaniac’ in all of us.
But has Pandora reached its peak? Pandora would say not. With sales up around 30% particularly on new lines, Pandora report they are still going strong, but is there a new kid on the block?
Buzzing around behind the scenes steps forward Nomination. With no big advertising campaigns, and no big budget marketing, Nomination bracelets have quietly started to rise in popularity. Particularly in the north of the UK. The original path beaten by Pandora in the early days.
I have two retail jewellery stores in the East Midlands, and we have seen a huge rise in the sales of Nomination bracelets and links. Sales in our stores are up around 50% on the last year, and have been quietly rising for the last two or three years. Ken Brown regional sales manager from Nomination confirms their sales are up 30% in the UK, this year, with a similar rise the year before and sales are continuing to rise. Manufactured in Florence, these affordable link bracelets were first created by Paolo Gensini. Paolo, a creative thinker and an entrepreneur, amazingly sold his first Nomination link bracelets alongside Italian ice-cream! The bracelets are made of steel, combined with gold, silver and other precious stones. This unusual combination, is something traditional jewellers are not always keen to embrace. Something Paolo himself acknowledges was a stumbling block in the 1980s when he looked for his first Nomination stockists.
As a jewellery retailer, I’m looking for quality no matter how the product is constructed. Im also looking for items I think I can sell, so I didn’t hesitate to take on a brand like Nomination. It has good branding, nice packaging and the product is a good price point as well as being another piece of collectable jewellery customers seem to really like.
This attitude by jewellery retailers, towards embracing innovative jewellery products no matter what their materials, is something that has evolved since the rise of Pandora in the mid 2000s. I like to call it the ‘Pandora effect’.
