In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Charming Commerce ft. Rembrandt Charms
We talk with Eric Lux, President of Rembrandt Charms, about why charms convert so well online, how vertical integration keeps shelves stocked, and what smart marketing does for repeat sales.
Learn more about Rembrandt Charms: rembrandtcharms.com
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Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop. This week I'm joined by Eric Lux, and he's the president of Rembrandt Charms. And you've heard me talk about Rembrandt Charms and also Charms in general, about how it's an easy way for retailers to get their foot in the door when it comes to e-commerce. They're, you know, a lower price point item and uh typically an easier thing to buy online because there's no measurements and sizes. And I talked about that with him, and I think it's a very cool conversation. He talks about what it's like running their own factory and being based out of Buffalo, New York. Uh, we talk a little bit about that as well. He's also a former professional race car driver, and that's such an interesting uh turn to his story. And we talked about the decision to uh become uh president of Rembrandt Charms and take this from his uh from his father, and uh it was a really cool conversation. It's great on the mic. Alright, thanks everybody and enjoy.
SPEAKER_00:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, Punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth, or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, PunchMark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmark.com slash go. And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so excited to get a chance to speak with you. Um, in one of our wrap-up episodes at the end of this past season, I was talking about e-commerce and how to get into e-commerce if you're not currently in. And my advice has always been getting into charms. And uh we've seen some of our clients have a lot of real success with uh with charms this past year. Um, could you give me like an idea of like where Rembrandt Charms fits into like the landscape of the jewelry industry? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Uh we have charms, you know, that well, all charms in general, but uh sterling silver charms, gold plate charms are gonna be an affordable price point and uh often someone's first purchase. Then we also have 10 karat and 14 karat gold charms as well. So the price points are really well covered. You know, my feeling and our belief that we've built on is charms will always win on volume. Uh, but when you sell the story, you know, the average order of volume is gonna really uh be consistent and and strong.
SPEAKER_01:And Rembrandt Charms has been around for uh seemingly quite a while. Um, is this something you've always been involved in, or was it like later on in life you're like, okay, I should I should get involved in the family business?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so Rembrandt Charms was founded in 1970 by my father. He um he started off by selling giftware out of a station wagon in Buffalo, New York. And uh noticed the charms and uh collectibles segment of his business was really picking up. And he had to find a manufacturer that could support his uh his growth. And there was a company called Rembrandt in Canada at the time, and he uh he ended up partnering with them. And uh uh his partner had sold the company then afterwards to a major company called Johnson Matthews. Shortly after that, Johnson Matthews uh decided to liquidate that part of their business. And my father ended up buying uh all the assets of the company uh through auction and rehiring all the employees that they laid off. Wow. And uh we've been here ever since.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that's so cool. It sounds like the the dream is to, yeah, like kind of merge with someone who's got it figured out and then get a chance to run that business yourself. Um is that something that you were involved with as like uh, you know, were you around the business grow uh much growing up?
SPEAKER_02:I yeah, so I I grew up around the business every holiday, every weekend, every uh every chance I could get, I was in the office helping my father and I held other jobs too outside of the company. And it was uh it was always something I enjoyed being able to work with my my family and uh learn from my father and uh get to know our customers. And just after college, I ended up working full-time. Uh so in about 2009, 2010, I started full-time in this business and uh have never left since. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And like we were saying, man, it's it really had like a big year for e-commerce when it came to uh charms. We you know, I tracked this pretty closely, and um volume is just very, very up for this past year. But we also saw just with the price of gold and honestly, the price of all precious metals, uh, the average order value was up just on the nature of like the cost of the metals. Is that something that you guys are seeing? Is people kind of pivoting into these? I I I sometimes I think lower price point items is like a less kind way of saying it. But in the end, that's kind of what they are is like this ability to get someone through the door and out the door keeping something, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. The charms, I mean, they're emotional, they're sentimental. I think they're easier than some products to understand online. Uh, and also they're incredibly collectible. So you're gonna find the repeat business and uh the add-on sales aspect of charms. Uh, but at the same time, I wouldn't take anything away from the amount of uh gold we sell as well. Uh so it's really just I think a lot of it comes down to the sentimental aspect of the charms.
SPEAKER_01:Is that something that you train your your retailers in, is like how to tell the story of Rembrandt Charms?
SPEAKER_02:You know, we're we're pretty fortunate. Uh a lot of our customers really have uh a dialed-in training program for their uh for their staff. And uh charms really sell themselves. So if they have a display in their store or if they have our product on their website, uh we try to do a really good job with our marketing to lead the consumer further along that path so the retailer doesn't have to do as much legwork, but they also have the opportunity to learn their customers' most sentimental stories and moments in life, uh, which strengths it strengthens the relationship uh, of course, with their customer.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. What does like a typical store look like for you that's that's selling charms? Because I guess if I don't know anything, I would assume that the smaller stores are probably killing it on like lower price lower price point items. Um, but are there still big stores that are that are doing them as well? Or is it mainly the small mom and pops?
SPEAKER_02:It's a wide range, but it's always gonna be a fine jeweler. Uh, you know, even with our most affordable price points in sterling silver and and gold plate over sterling silver, you know, your still average invoice is around$500 minimum. So uh you really are gonna find our uh our product in in some of the nicer retail jewelry stores from the independents uh to the mid-levels and to the majors. Uh we're in all of them. So uh we're fortunate to have a really good uh group of customers to help support our brand and uh and to satisfy the charm collectors in their areas.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I guess and it's one of the few pieces of jewelry that could be like a recurring purchase. Like there's not a lot of like you're gonna buy an engagement ring, hopefully once, and you're gonna buy a wedding ring, hopefully once. Same thing with like really with earrings, you're pretty much only gonna have like one style that like, or you're gonna buy one of each style, even if you're really into having lots of different jewelry. But when it comes to charms, like you really could just keep buying them every single year to commemorate different things. Is that something that you kind of see as like people really sort of build up a clientele of, like you said, uh collectors?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. It's uh, you know, a customer story is never finished. There's always more charms. Uh, and so you just try to you try to see those customers come to life, and and what you discover is that you know they start collecting and then they build bracelets for different occasions and different moments. And they have uh a travel bracelet from when they went on on this trip and uh then they start another one the next year. And it's uh cool, it's it's sentimental to them because of the memories uh that they made, but also the the ability to convey those memories through the charms to their loved ones or their children and pass down something meaningful that you know their kids can remember them by.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, and as people are collecting them, do you guys have like a team of designers on staff that like, all right, hey, we really need, you know, this movie is really popular or this uh kind of topic is you know, Star Wars is really big right now. We need more Star Wars stuff. Is that something you have to like pay attention to? Is like stay on trend, I guess?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, absolutely. We um we have a team of designers that you know takes a number of reports into consideration. So uh, you know, first and foremost, requests from retailers, um, you know, misses on our website if we don't have a product. Uh, but we do uh we are asked regularly by movies, uh movie production groups to supply product because we're one of the few that manufacture everything in in Buffalo, New York, and in Toronto, Canada. Cool. And uh there happens to be a lot of filming done in Buffalo and in uh in Toronto as well. So we're able to put product in their hands the same day and uh positions us well for props and uh it's it's fun to see our product in um some of our other displays and in different movies and on Netflix and and other places.
SPEAKER_01:Are you able to tell us any any of the ones that you've worked with in the past or is that not something you talk about?
SPEAKER_02:No, I I'm I would have to check to make sure we can, but uh, I'd be happy to supply you with a list.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Because I I can only imagine if you want to take an analytic kind of approach to something, you know, you'd probably that would behoove you, you know, like, oh um, just trying to think. Like, honestly, sports teams, just if you're into sports and they win, you know, best bet that I'm and I'm collector of charms. Best bet I'm getting a charm that, you know, commemorates that time, a special moment in my life, and carry that with me. Uh, I can only imagine like paying attention to SEO on your guys' end, you know, how many different ways that they stick the word charms onto different things is something like, yeah, something you can start providing a very specific charm uh for that kind of search and making sure that you, you know, dominate that corner of the internet.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of our retailers are actually um some of the first to notify us because these uh production groups will actually ask the retailer if they can use their store for part of their shoot. And uh cool. We'll work with the store to make sure the display is in good order and and looks really nice for the uh for the shot as well. Um but we've also we've also seen it where it's gifts. Uh, you know, for um we did one for Sinners with uh Haley Steinfeld as well this year. Uh so it it depends how the requests come in, but it's always fun to to work on them and see what the charms mean to the people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. The Queen of Buffalo, if you will. Yes, yeah. Um, is that like a like an open dialogue that you have with your with your clients, you know, because like hearing, as I'm sure that everybody has an opinion. Oh, we don't have enough of this type of uh this charm. How do you like balance? Is it like which stores are doing the most volume? You gotta listen to them the most, or is it just like uh a really outside the box kind of idea, like, hey, we need to start stocking these types of charms? Because I can only imagine you probably are gonna do a massive volume of your best sellers, but it's like how much fringe do you want to keep chasing? I guess that would be uh something I wouldn't I wouldn't know how to balance myself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, when when uh the price of silver and gold is what it is today, and yeah, it's silver increased over 150% in the last year, it it certainly changes how you go about inventory and stocking. And and thankfully, we're positioned to uh be vertically integrated and have everything from the sourcing to the manufacturing and finishing and distribution of the product under our roof. Uh so you know, 90% of our line is are going to be top sellers that we have in stock and five different metals at any given point. Uh even during, you know, by December 20th, we usually have a 99% in stock rate. And part of that is that we're getting shipments three or four times a day from our factory to our distribution center uh just to make sure that we're we are in stock. So if you happen to order one of the ones that is out of stock, it's usually back in stock within three to five days.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Is that something like like you just said, I mean, silver is crazy up and so is gold. All the metals are up. Does that actually play into your hands? Because I mean, uh, obviously there's more room for uh for margin if if people market up, you know, whatever the percentage is based on on the cost of goods. Is that something that plays into your hands and makes it so that it's easier to sell? Or is it like, no, the the sweet spot is this price for for a charm? And if the cost of goods is is high, then we just don't have as much margin. How do you like kind of approach that?
SPEAKER_02:We try to uh take keep a pulse on the consumer behavior and see if there's times where uh you know metal surcharges happen so quickly, you know, do we want to eat into our margin to lessen the impact on the end consumer and have a gradual um transition to the correct price over time? And it's uh it's one way we try to you know keep the market palatable. Uh but from what we see, our charm sales have continued to increase year over year. Um, I think you're seeing the same on the punchmark data side as well with the websites. It's uh from an e-commerce standpoint too, our our sales have continued to go up year over year for our uh retail partners that sell online. Um and I think it's just it speaks to the you know the quality of the charm, the you know, the ability to have it in your hands the next day. Uh and also it's an extremely sentimental. So if you want to have uh you know a bracelet for um you know your last trip or or your loved ones or your daughter, you know, it's it's really gonna hold a special meaning to you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. The other thing that's just so nice about charms is that there's no like size, if you will. Like there's no one the one thing I've started learning from speaking to my uh my friends about jewelry, especially you know, uh male friends, is that they don't know their ring size. And uh just increasingly I'm just like, hey, what size ring are you? And they're like, Oh, I don't know. I'm just like, here, try my ring on, put it on. They're like, okay, there you go. You're a size 10. And the fact that they don't know that, imagine trying to buy, you know, anything fashionable for themselves. They would have to deal one extra step, find out the ring size, and then go buy something. But with a charm, pretty much gonna fit on the cord, no, no matter what. At least I'm assuming that you guys have some type of standardization around that. Do you think that like is mail market? Is that something that you guys are um kind of thinking about in the in the future?
SPEAKER_02:For the mail market, um, there's some brands that are really well equipped to to handle the mail market, but we do offer uh a small selection for the guys just because uh we've had enough retailers ask for it. So we have some larger pendants, we have some chains uh that are available as well. And uh, you know, it's we rolled it out last year and it's been responded to quite favorably. So I think we might look at expanding that collection. Uh, but at the end of the day, you know, our focus is the charms and making sure that our customers have the best quality and the best selection uh and the best service to support, you know, their charm sales and their customers and make it easy uh for our retail partners.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that's so cool having the the manufacturing in-house and allow you to kind of have that flexibility and see the field. I guess I always wonder like, is that it seems logistically challenging to get things to every corner of the US and Canada and making it so that things are arriving on time. At a certain point, it seems like logistics is the is the true battle when it comes to like ensuring customer satisfaction. If your product is great, then it's gonna be great. But making sure it arrives, especially around the holidays, that seems like the real headache itself.
SPEAKER_02:It can be, you know, at a certain point it's out of our control once it goes on to the uh UPS or FedEx or or uh US mail truck. But um, we have it dialed in pretty well over these years to know kind of when our suggested dates are, when you should expedite your shipping method. And for the most part, our customers uh you know take the advice uh for those dates and and what we're hearing, because we get updates as well from those carriers as to how they're performing during the holidays. Uh, but for the most part, we're we're dialed in and and ready to get product out up until December 23rd, every uh December. So uh the next big occasion for us, of course, is gonna be Mother's Day and graduation, um, you know, teacher appreciation gifts, of course, too. So uh we're gearing up for uh all the spring buying purchases that are gonna happen now.
SPEAKER_01:Is that something that you take upon yourself to help market? Because that relationship is is also something that I'm starting to learn more as I start to handle the vendor kind of aspect of things for Punchmark, is like some the some of the vendors are like, okay, we're gonna help you market. We want you to you know succeed and dominate um, you know, for these different buying opportunities. But some uh some vendors is very much like hands off, like, hey, promote this however you want. Uh, but I think Rembrandt is definitely one of the few that um is producing banners and producing uh digital assets for their for their stores.
SPEAKER_02:We try to uh we try to provide our retail partners with everything they need to be successful. From uh we actually call it our business building charm program, which includes the display, the e-commerce selection, all the marketing to support that, whether it's in their store, on their website, social media, email, you name it, uh, we have it. Uh we have a very robust marketing team. And uh in the past year, with the growth we've had, we've we've really uh expanded our marketing department. We just hired a uh terrific talent um director of creative and brand strategy who's worked with some really major brands. And I expect uh the marketing that will be pumping out over the next year to be incredible uh and very valuable uh assets for our retail partners to use. And and at the end of the day, the goal is to help them ch sell more charms and create more new and repeat business uh and to have satisfied customers. And and I think uh we're on track to do that again.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that's awesome. It sounds like you guys really take it uh from like a retailer perspective as well. Because yeah, like I was saying, it's just some some of the vendors, it seems like they're gonna produce the the product, but it's on the retailer to kind of get it in the consumer's hands. Whereas a lot of vendors are increasingly are like, okay, we're gonna we want to be a partner, we want to help you sell through. Um, I guess it probably makes sense though that or the the data would probably show that if you do that extra step, I'm sure that the satisfaction, the opportunity to sell is probably way higher. So I guess it probably makes a lot of sense just business-wise as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you're right, Michael. I you know, when I started in the industry in 2010, there weren't a lot of brands offering marketing assets to their retail partners. And I would say that's almost become the norm now. Uh, but there's a variety of the quality of that the of the marketing assets. And um, you know, if if the brand's really on point, then they could save the retailer a lot of time to not have to crate, you know, from zero every every time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So we're happy to provide the retailers with with as much as we can.
SPEAKER_01:That's the big thing that we're uh hoping to roll out for the the vendor program. We haven't announced it fully yet, but is allowing uh vendors that are premium vendors to put their marketing assets right into uh our marketing library. So have it appear for the retailer on their, you know, when they're building websites and landing pages, being able to just add in, you know, a new banner by Rembrandt and just have it be able to. start putting it in. That's one of those things. It's just like adding, connecting the loop for me. It shouldn't be Punchmark as a crossroads. It should be allowing vendors to, you know, compliment and assist their retailers as best as possible. Because in the end, if if the retailer's selling more of the vendor product, then everybody's going to be happier, including Punchmark. So that's the kind of thing I I just at least think about in like the the back of my mind.
SPEAKER_02:No, you're, you're, you're exactly right. And it's uh it's nice working with Punchmark because we know that you you all and your team is is fantastic and deliver the same kind of service that uh you know we pride ourselves on giving to the retailers and it makes um it makes it easy for us to say to our customers if you if you need website support, if you need to build a website, start with Punchmark and you'll save yourself a lot of grief and a lot of money by going to going to Punchmark. And uh it's it's a proven concept.
SPEAKER_01:I appreciate that. Thank you so much, Eric. All right everybody we're going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor hey as we start a new season of In the Loop I just want to say thank you so much for continuing to support our podcast. If you haven't already make sure you're subscribed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you're getting the newest episodes every Tuesday right in your inbox. It's the best way for us to grow is to have a great subscribed listener base. If you want to give us the extra push make sure you leave us five star rating on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It helps us appear higher in the rankings and more people will find our podcast. If you want to leave us feedback go to punchmark.com slash loop that's l-p e and leave us feedback at the bottom of the page with the survey form and let us know what guests you want on, what series you enjoy the most and how we can make the best podcast for the jewelry industry. Thanks so much for your continued support we have another great season ahead of us and now back to the show. And we're back. Now just to kind of wrap this up and I wanted to at least get a chance to ask you about it because I had read a a really interesting interview that you had given uh about two years ago at this point. It was about this career that you had kind of seemingly started and are continuing in addition to running your uh your own business as um as a as a race racer. Could you give me like an idea of like what type of racing that you do and like how you got into that yeah absolutely so unfortunately I I have retired from racing.
SPEAKER_02:I retired last year but I I had a long run. I had uh 27 years of racing 20 years professionally I uh I started off in go-kart set at seven years old and won a number of scholarships and racing programs to to be able to create a career for myself uh that lasted for quite a while and I was fortunate to have some uh great teammates and great teams and um traveled to some amazing racetracks and um really really had a a lot of a lot of fun winning races and and uh building new relationships um during that time. It was it was fun to balance because you know I that was my that was my passion and uh it became the career um at a young age and I did one year of high school and then I was homeschooled after that because I was on the road about 250 days a year. Wow and I was racing for Porsche and and they helped uh they helped covered my uh my schooling so I could continue uh racing which was which was incredible. I just actually signed a a contract in in NASCAR in 2010 uh but I found out my father um was ill and uh it was right when I graduated from uh university as well so I had to make a decision if I was going to continue racing full time at that level and and go on the NASCAR circuit or come back and and run the family business and I made a decision to come back and wow and run the family business. And um from there I transitioned to sports car racing which was less demanding from a time constraint. Still still demanding you know maybe a hundred days a year on the road but I was able to do both um you know manage a company um until my father was healthy and then also continue my dream in racing. During those years I had the opportunity to race uh you know open wheel cars and NASCARs and sports cars and probably you know over 50 different teams I was able to race with um so some wonderful memories during that chapter.
SPEAKER_01:Man and getting a chance to see that you had uh you know red red charms on the front of your of your car that's got to be like a really special moment for you to uh kind of combine both of your passions.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely yeah any anytime uh the team was willing to let me put the logo on the car um I was very appreciative of it and I made sure I made sure I tried to put in the best placement I could um but the you know a lot of the team owners are really really um great to work with and and uh it wasn't much of a sell for me to have to ask them to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Wow and is that something that you still that you still follow? I know that you know drive to survive getting a lot of publicity and and and gain a lot of fans for the F1 circuit is that something you know that you're still following with NASCAR and um any of the other types of racing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah I'm still very close to a lot of those drivers um you know an IndyCar, an F1 a NASCAR sports car, they all they all end up finding their way to the IMSA um Weather Tech Sports Car series where they do the 24 hours at Aytona and uh over in Lama too where you have the 24 hours of Lama um all disciplines of racing like to go do those races and win the the big endurance races. So um I've been able to develop friendships with a lot of those drivers and it's nice to see how they're doing and and cheer them on. You know we're gonna have Colton Herda who is one of my teammates um you know working with Cadillac F1 and hopefully be in the car next season in 2027. So it'll be great to see another American driver in F1 soon and uh hopefully really um raise the bar for us and and uh generate some great results.
SPEAKER_01:Wow that's so cool it's it's amazing to hear uh that you had this entire life as well and that you're you know still so young but able to have uh kind of lived uh two lives at this point it's a it's a very impressive thing it's something I'm very um as I start to speak with more people in the in the industry hearing that they came from something else and then were able to find their way in the jewelry industry as well is just uh you know really inspiring for me.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. It's um it's been a blessed career to do that and it's uh it's helped me a lot with uh how I approach things in jewelry uh from especially from a team building standpoint and uh it's it's really um guided a lot of the decision making I I have today um but it is nice to have the extra time to focus on the business and to to focus on my family. I mean I have two young boys that I uh I just love to hang out with and go skiing with and do whatever I can. So um having those extra days home is really important to me right now.
SPEAKER_01:I can only imagine. But Eric if people are listening and they're maybe interested in learning more about Rembrandt Charms, maybe getting a demo or uh carrying it in store, where could they go to learn more?
SPEAKER_02:So we have a YouTube channel and uh some of our videos on there are really helpful and informative. I would say one of the best videos we have on there right now is called the power of collectibles. And it's a short video that's um honestly it's a great refresher for um you know some of the staff if they're new hires or seasonal or you just want to know more about Rembrandt Charms and what's selling. And uh last year you know we we launched some state of the art technology around our personalization department and it's uh it's really taken off because of our our lead times are one to two days and the quality is a lifetime warranty. So um it touches on that a little bit and uh what that could do for your business as well as our other programs. So start there. Of course we have a retailer dashboard as well where you can uh sign up for uh either adding an account or just to log in and and to receive more information which we we put out regularly.
SPEAKER_01:Eric I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much for your time I'm a big fan of Rembrandt Charms and I'm an even bigger fan of uh seeing our retailers get involved and uh you know it's a great entry point for having success online so I'm really glad that you guys are there. Um I think that we'll call it right there. Thanks everybody so much for listening. I'll be back next week Tuesday with another episode. Cheers. Bye all right everybody that's the end of the show thanks so much for listening. My guest this week was Eric Lux president of Rembrandt Charms this episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, Michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cochran. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmark.com slash loop that's L-O-U-P-E. Thanks we'll be back next week Tuesday with another episode cheers bye
