Articles and News
Unusual Beginnings Make For Unusual Success At Shetler-Wade Jewelers | April 06, 2016 (0 comments)
San Antonio, TX—Shetler-Wade Jewelers has interesting beginnings. The store, a recent Centurion Vendor’s Choice Retailer Award winner for ‘Most Outstanding Partner’ is a venture between Michelle Shetler (far left) and Kelly Wade Fry (near left). The Centurion spoke recently with Wade Fry about their business.
The duo started out as an affiliate of Amarillo-based jewelry store, Duncan & Boyd. Says Kelly, “Michelle was approached by Ron Boyd to open and run the San Antonio location with a buy-in opportunity. Their investors were friends of my family, so they called me. I did an interview, and they hired me on the spot. There was not another jewelry store in San Antonio that focused on exceptional customer service.”
In the beginning, the two did everything from scratch. They worked with an interior designer and chose the carpeting, picked a phone system, and even bought a refrigerator. “We opened in the summer of 2005, and we followed Michelle’s sales experience to make the store work. You call a customer/potential customer, make it a personal call, and invite the customer to come in, even in their swimsuit cover-ups, since it was summertime. We made them feel comfortable. Because of that, today we have a store where customer service sets us apart.”
The two ran the store as Duncan & Boyd from 2005-2009. “In 2009, we formed a partnership, bought Ron Boyd out, did a quick name change, and the rest is history. We’ve been in this location for 11 years, and we’ve been Shetler Wade Jewelers for seven of those years.”
According to Kelly, “Michelle is a salesperson extraordinaire. She had her own business for 15 years before we began working together doing retail trade shows, selling high-end costume jewelry and accessories. I graduated from the University of Texas and earned my GIA certification. It’s her sales experience and my passion for gemology that makes our partnership unique.”
As their history is atypical, so is their location. Shetler Wade Jewelers is in an upscale office building (below), on the ground floor, in a building filled with high-end businesses. The building was brand-new when they moved in. Their selling space is about 700 square feet and they have another 1,200 feet of office space.
“We’re very efficient,” says Wade Fry of the limited showroom area. “About half of our showcases are antiques. We set the mood so that customers feel like they are walking into someone’s home.”
The Shetler Wade staff is composed of nine full-time and five part-time people. “We have a diverse inventory and a local jeweler nearby to do our repairs. We also offer CAD for much of our custom work.”
And the rest of the inventory mix? Online, the Shetler Wade website shows about 30 brands. “We work with a lot of different designers, many that we see at the Centurion Show. We also offer a lot of non-branded merchandise.” The store does not currently sell watches.
Many of the customers at Shetler Wade Jewelers are female self-purchasers. “We work with many of the fashion-forward ladies in our community,” says Wade Fry. “We also have plenty of male purchasers. I joke that we have clients that never set foot in the store. We send emails and texts with pictures to the husbands. We gift-wrap and deliver, and he never has leave his office.”
Shetler and Wade find their customers through community involvement and relationships. They depend on lots of social media and direct mail for non-traditional advertising. “While we don’t focus on traditional advertising, we did have our first billboard last year and it felt really good,” says Wade Fry.
Local philanthropy allows the duo to connect with customers. “We do tons of donations and gift certificates that make up about 75% of our advertising. When you support your community, you contribute to what matters to people. For us, that’s more important than being on a billboard. It’s more hands-on, more interactive.”
Events are also important at Shetler Wade Jewelers. “Our ‘Passport Event’ is five years old. Every August we send a passport to everyone on our mailing list. It lists our six to eight events [we hold] with various designers. The event runs from September to December and usually kicks off with a new designer. It ends with a festive holiday party.”
“We incentivize our customers to come and make a wish list and get it up to date. We offer our customers the chance to see new lines and new collections. They get a stamp for each event they attend. Our grand prize is a $5,000 gift card. We also have given away two $1,000 and one $500 gift cards.”
Wade Fry says they have ‘frequent flyers’ that come to every event. This year, one of their frequent flyers, a customer who had been to all previous events for the past four years, won the grand prize. Wade Fry was happy it went to such a loyal customer.
But the women are not the only ones enticed into Shetler Wade Jewelers. “We invite the gentlemen to come along to our events, and we offer them blackjack gaming tables to turn their winnings into Shetler Wade dollars and hand-rolled cigars to take home as souvenirs.”
One might wonder where this event takes place, given that the selling space is only 700 square feet. “Our building graciously allows us to use the lobby area every year. That gives us an extra 2,000-3,000 square feet,” says Kelly.
While the duo has a successful business plan, certainly their personalities have helped them to succeed. “Michelle is a natural born salesperson and was raised in a retail environment,” said Wade Fry. “Since she was raised in the sales industry, she has always been a true self-starter.”
Kelly’s connection to jewelry also runs deep. “Jewelry was always a very personal thing for me,” she says. “My mother was a jewelry-holic, for lack of a better word. She passed away young and left me a lot of jewelry as an inheritance; it was my connection to her. Jewelry has always been very significant to me. I’m also very social and I love connecting with my local community. I value the relationships. You’ve got to show up for relationships, be involved and present. I think that has helped with sales.”
Wade credits the outstanding team at Shetler Wade Jewelers with much of the company’s success. “We have amazing group of women at the store. We are very much a team and have built a remarkable culture. We’re a strong group of women who work very hard but have fun. It’s a great industry.”
Clearly Shetler Wade Jewelers is doing something right, and not just with their customers. At the 2016 Centurion Show, vendors vote on the Vendor’s Choice Retailer Awards. Shetler Wade won ‘Most Outstanding Partner’ in a three-way tie with Tivol and Montelongo Jewelers.
(Third from right to far right) Michelle Shetler, Pam Cohen and Robin McEldowney of Shetler Wade Jewelers with presenter Pratima Sethi of Sethi Couture (left) at the 2016 Centurion Show and fellow winners.)
“It was such an honor,” says Wade. “We run our business being committed to living our true lives. We pay our bills on time, and strive to be the kind of partner that a vendor would want to have. We have great relationships with our vendors, and stay in touch with them. We share our personal lives as well.”
“We try to treat everyone fairly from vendors to customers. Some people treat their customers that way but not the vendors. We treat everyone that way. At the end of the day, all our relationships matter.”