Hospital Retail Trends Report: Jewelry Trends

Hospital gift shops provide gift resources for patients, hospital staff, and visitors alike. Jewelry trends fit reflect the location of the shop, as well as the hospital location, store size, and merchandise mix available.

At The Gift Shop at Hammond Henry Hospital in Geneseo, Ill., the store is managed and staffed entirely by volunteers, as is often the case at independent hospital shops. The store sells apparel, accessories such as handbags and scarves, jewelry, and home décor items, as well as flowers and small gift items. Through the shop’s support of hospital patient care through the funding of some hospital equipment, as well as assisting the community with support for student scholarships in the health care field, the shop is an intrinsic part of the hospital’s culture. Volunteer Manager Julie West said that while the store carries a wide variety of earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and watches, despite the wide-ranging mix of jewelry items, the most popular item by far are cross necklaces. “They simply do the best for us,” she noted. “I think that is because in a hospital environment, people are sometimes looking toward the affirmation of spiritual thoughts, and also because this jewelry is just simple and pretty.”

“Right now, we are doing tremendous sales in necklaces and earrings. Not everyone has the opportunity to get new clothes, but you can change your jewelry and really freshen your wardrobe that way so that it still feels good.”

West said that jewelry sales have not changed greatly since the pandemic began, but sales patterns have been affected in general. “We don’t offer online sales, and we were closed for several months. That impacted us, as you can imagine, and really short-changed us on the months that we could sell. We’re just glad to reopen,” she stressed. “Our sales have rebounded, but we are not back to the level we were before overall, so that impacts every item we sell and carry.”

The store does a mix of display techniques, keeping jewelry in a separate area of the store and mixing and matching it with other items. Cross merchandising is often done with apparel, but it is sometimes thematic, as was the case of the popular cross necklaces. “We merchandised those necklaces with some other spiritual items,” she said.

In Fridley, Minn., Jane Hogie manages three gift shops for the Mercy Hospital Group, two at Mercy Hospital and one at the Unity Campus. Hogie said at her stores, all jewelry is selling extremely well. “Right now, we are doing tremendous sales in necklaces and earrings. Not everyone has the opportunity to get new clothes, but you can change your jewelry and really freshen your wardrobe that way so that it still feels good.” Hogie noted that the store primarily caters to staff members. “A lot of our hospitals don’t allow visitors right now due to the pandemic, or they allow only one visitor per patient if the patient is not being treated for COVID-19.” Hogie sees staff members are all looking for different types of jewelry, depending on their ages and personal preferences.

“What’s really kind of fun to see is that all the different generations have different attitudes about jewelry. For millennials, real gold is a big draw; Gen Xers are more into bulky, big items, and so are the 80s girls. So, it’s important not to limit what you carry,” she noted. “You can’t just say ‘I like silver, or I like gold,’ and go in one direction, or you won’t come close to hitting all the markets that way.”

For Hogie, the major change in jewelry sales from pre-pandemic times is this: “Prior to the pandemic, there were more patient sales. Now we really are selling to staff members more than anyone else.”

For display, Hogie recommended keeping a jewelry display separate from other areas of the store, but also cross-merchandising some items with apparel when it’s appropriate. “We have a display just for jewelry

Continued on page 86

As many retailers close on a great year, the challenge becomes, “How do I beat those numbers next year?” The best solution is adding proven product with great margins. The Living Legends and Uniquely You Earrings programs from Wheeler Manufacturing are market tested, fully in stock, and ready to take your bottom line to the next level. And, we are currently offering free freight and display on the initial order for these two programs. Ship now and pay in July with approved credit. Contact us today to learn more.

For a catalog please visit www.WheelerJewelry.com or call toll-free 1.800.843.1937

Hosptial Retail Trends (From page 84) adjacent to our clothing and purses, so when we do have an outfit on display, we will accessorize it.” She added, “It’s easier for the customer to see the whole package, rather than to visualize for themselves how jewelry will go with the design of apparel.”

The stores that Hogie manages range in size from a 300-square-foot small shop in the baby and children’s

“Our number one item is earrings. We sell a lot of them, usually simpler, stud-type earrings. I think they’re more appealing because they are simple and can really go with anything. Silver stud earrings are the biggest sellers.” center, to an 1,100-square-foot space at Mercy Hospital. The Unity gift shop is 900 square feet.

At the Blessing Hospital Gift Shop and Tea Room in Quincy, Ill., Sales Associate Justyce Stephenson described the top-selling jewelry at the volunteer run and staffed gift shop. “Our number one item is earrings,” she asserted. “We sell a lot of them, usually simpler, stud-type earrings. I think they’re more appealing because they are simple and can really go with anything. Silver stud earrings are the biggest sellers.” She has not seen much change in jewelry sales from pre-pandemic times until now.

Jewelry at the gift shop is displayed with clothing items as well as in a separate area, Stephenson said.

“We do keep many of our earrings on a stand at the front of the store. We do display necklaces and some matching earrings with full outfits we are displaying, however. Doing that helps people think what jewelry would look the best with a particular outfit,” she said.

In Whitefish, Mont., at the North Valley Hospital, Gift Shop Manager Phyllis Johannes carries “necklaces, bracelets, earrings, the whole gamut of jewelry. But earrings are our best-sellers, mostly hoops and dangling styles which are very popular here.” Larger styles are both the general trend and add some glamor to daily life, adding to the appeal of these types of earrings.

The main change Johannes has witnessed since the pandemic is that “People in general come into the store less. But, when they do come in, they buy jewelry, and the earrings are among our best-selling items in the store.”

She keeps all the store’s jewelry in one area of the gift shop. “We have an earring wrap,” she noted. Additionally, the store is beginning to promote jewelry items online. “We are currently just starting out promoting items on social media, both for Instagram and Facebook.”

The small shop serves both patients and staff members, but tends to serve more staff as regular customers, Johannes explained. “We only have a 25-bed hospital, so it’s only natural that more of our customers are staff members,” she added.

Overall, jewelry of all kinds is a strong part of a successful merchandise mix at hospital gift shops, whether the stores cater more to staff or patients and patient visitors. ❖