Episode 5
The Retail Wave Makers | Jennifer Feldman, Effy Jewelry
In this weeks episode, our retail guru Nadine Heubel meets with Jennifer Feldman, Executive Vice President at Effy Jewelry to discuss the companies journey in the cruise industry.
Effy Jewelry is a trailblazer in the retail cruise market, Nadine quiz' Jennifer on their unprecedented growth in the sector. From its inception in 1979, a family business... to becoming the leading fine jewelry retailer at sea, with over 110 boutiques!
Jennifer shares some of their secret ingredients, one being their investment in people, spending millions of dollars a year looking after their staff and harnessing their company culture.
Turning to the jewelry...what are some of the trends Jennifer sees emerging with new innovations in years to come? And can you guess what the most expensive piece of jewelry ever sold at sea was?
Transcript
Hello to everybody from around the world. Welcome to episode two of season two of The Retail Wave Makers, Seatrade Cruise Talks podcast. My name is Nadine Heubel. I am the Senior
Nadine Heubel:Managing Director, Travel Retail North America at Newmark formerly known as Harper Dennis Hobbs. But today, I'm talking to you as the retail ambassador for Seatrade. Retail has been going from
Nadine Heubel:strength to strength in the cruise industry, and I'm grateful for Seatrade to have aknowledged this development by creating a retail Ambassador role, which I am honored to have been appointed to. Part
Nadine Heubel:of my responsibility is to create further awareness for these exciting sectors amongst cruise industry peers. And what better way to do it then creating our own podcast miniseries The Retail Wave
Nadine Heubel:Maker Podcast. In this podcast series, I will welcome different stakeholders of the cruise industry, cruise lines, retailers, vendors and consultants. And I will discuss with my guests the state of
Nadine Heubel:the cruise retail industry. We have a lineup of amazing guests, and we will hear from them firsthand about latest innovation initiatives challenges and their personal outlook of the future of cruise
Nadine Heubel:retail. And we will also get a little bit personal with our rapid fire questions at the end of the podcast. Today, I would like to welcome a true trailblazer and female powerhouse, Jennifer Feldman,
Nadine Heubel:the Executive Vice President of Effy Jewelry. The Effy growth story in the cruise retail industry is second to none. And Jennifer has been really instrumental in growing the Effy into a business to
Nadine Heubel:where it is today. Jennifer joined Effy in 2005 and held various roles within the company. Before joining the cruise team at Effy, Jennifer oversaw growing the Effy business from a six store chain of
Nadine Heubel:boutiques to the second biggest jewellry retailer in the Caribbean. During my tenure at China in America, I worked with Jennifer on various projects. And one of my fondest memories was the opening of
Nadine Heubel:our boutiques on Water Sky Princess. When Jennifer and myself we were joined by Jen Schwartz, the then CEO of Princess Cruises and now CEO of Holland America group. And Kelly Coleman, who was actually
Nadine Heubel:on the podcast a few episodes ago. And we were joined and did the ribbon cutting and the and the little speech and this was really an amazing experience. And I have also always value Jennifer's
Nadine Heubel:professional opinion. Despite all her success, I have to say, Jennifer is extremely humble, and just a wonderful human being. So welcome to the show, Jennifer.
Jennifer Feldman:Wow, thank you so much. What a wonderful welcome. Wow, I might like chick separating a little bit. You mentioned female powerhouse and I just want to say it takes one to know what to
Jennifer Feldman:do. I mean, when I think of this industry, I think of a female powerhouse, I definitely think of you and how you, you know, came into this industry and just turn things upside down at very interesting
Jennifer Feldman:time in the cruise industry. And I was, it was just so great to meet you and get to know you and work with you. And we did some great things together. I'm just so happy to be here with you on your
Jennifer Feldman:podcast and congratulate you on your continued success.
Nadine Heubel:But it takes a village. So, you know. It takes all of us together. And it's it's great to work with amazing people. So happy to have you on the podcast here. In a very sunny Miami. I
Nadine Heubel:don't think that the you and me We live very far apart from each other. So I think we're sharing the same blue sky right now.
Jennifer Feldman:It's beautiful, and it's dry, and it's perfect Florida weather.
Nadine Heubel:I know our listeners are now very jealous when we talk about all of this. But so we're not going to make them even more jealous. And let's go straight into the podcast. So could you
Nadine Heubel:tell us a little bit more about your company. So it's a family business headquartered in New York. But there is so much more to it and I love for you to share this with our listeners.
Jennifer Feldman:I would love to share it. It's definitely something you know that I enjoy talking about. I love the company that I work for. I feel so fortunate and grateful and blessed to be
Jennifer Feldman:working for Effy jewelry for 17 years, as you noted. So Fe was started in 1979 by our owner and founder Effy Hematian. Effy actually immigrated here from Iran due to political persecution. And he was
Jennifer Feldman:a very successful electrical engineer and business owner in Iran, but he had to leave everything behind and just start from scratch here in the United States. And that is what he did. He started a
Jennifer Feldman:jewelry business from scratch right in the heart of Manhattan. And since then, Effy has grown to become one of the largest jewelry manufacturers in North America. And as the company grew actually at
Jennifer Feldman:these two sons, Bobby and Betty came to join him in this company and are now leading the Effy so that he has grown to become one of the largest jewelry manufacturers in North America. Since its start
Jennifer Feldman:in 1999 Effy started in retail by opening up stores in the Caribbean and Alaska where it cruise ship ports are primarily. And then in 2015 Effy at Sea launched with three boutiques on Princess cruise
Jennifer Feldman:line. And we are now the leading fine jewelry retailer at sea. And we have over 110 boutiques that say at this point, in 2018, we launched our media port shopping company Hematian Family Group Media.
Jennifer Feldman:And we now operate our publishing and port shopping programs across three major cruise lines, which is NCL, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean.
Nadine Heubel:That's that's an amazing story, you know, and although we have been working together, I had no idea that actually Mr. Effy had a technical engineering background.
Jennifer Feldman:Yeah, that's so interesting. Were you ever did you ever come up to the office?
Nadine Heubel:I guess I did come to the office once but very quickly, I think it was just like an in and out quick coffee quick meeting.
Jennifer Feldman:Yeah, yeah, he was an electrical engineer. And he also very talented and very artistic. So we thought, how can I lend my engineering background and my love of design, and he came up
Jennifer Feldman:with jewelry design. And it's one of the reasons why we're so well known for quality is because he is just very detail oriented. And he's just a stickler for quality. If there was one word, if you
Jennifer Feldman:asked Mr. Effy, if he was here, one word to describe his story, he would say quality.
Nadine Heubel:Yeah, no, no, it all it all make sense. So could you tell us a little bit more on that now about really the scope of cruise retail at Effy? On? How many ships are you? How many square
Nadine Heubel:feet of retail space do you operate? And then also something I'm always quite curious, especially in the fine jewelry side, what was the most expensive piece you ever sold?
Jennifer Feldman:Yeah, it's always fun to take a little peek behind the curtain. But we're on 110 ships right now with Effy at Sea boutiques across the major cruise lines. And then we also have about
Jennifer Feldman:30 retail stores still in the Caribbean and Alaska, we're still very much a part of that market. And altogether, we have about 120,000 square feet of retail. So we carry all categories of fine
Jennifer Feldman:jewelry, with prices ranging from a few 100 to several million dollars, we have some several million dollar pieces. And the most expensive single item that we have sold on board was $550,000, which
Jennifer Feldman:was a very rare red diamond. Which if you know about diamonds, red diamonds are the most rare of all diamond colors.
Nadine Heubel:It's a shame that we do this only audio because listeners you should all see my face right now. Like my mouth is OPEN! 550,000! Onboard a cruise ship!
Jennifer Feldman:And our largest sale was $1.3 million!
Nadine Heubel:To a single person?
Jennifer Feldman:One person bought 1.3 million. Yeah.
Nadine Heubel:It's crazy, but amazing. And wonderful, because you have great pieces. So people shop! And we talk a little bit more because there is definitely more to your secret sauce. Yeah. So
Nadine Heubel:tell us a little bit more. What is the secret sauce of Effy? How can you operate 120,000 square feet sell 1.3 million to one single person? And how can it be one of the 110 ships. So tell us a little
Nadine Heubel:bit more about this.
Jennifer Feldman:So our secret sauce has several ingredients. But I can talk about a few of them. One of them is definitely our ability to leverage the power of our brand, while also offering
Jennifer Feldman:differentiation across all our cruise line partners. You know, it's people love the Effy brand. It definitely helps with the sales. But you know when people choose different cruise lines for different
Jennifer Feldman:experiences, and we have to cater to that. So offering a different type of experience across different cruise lines is definitely one of our ingredients of our secret sauce. Another ingredient is our
Jennifer Feldman:investment in people. From recruiting to hiring to onboarding and ongoing training and coaching. We put a huge emphasis on culture and development, particularly with our onboard teams. Just as an
Jennifer Feldman:example, this year, we will spend literally millions of dollars on training and development. And that is a statistic that we're very proud of we really pour into our people.
Nadine Heubel:Another time that my mouth is open during this this podcast interview. Can you tell us a little bit more about this? You know, as you said, secret sauce is your people. And I can really
Nadine Heubel:also say this from my side. That's why I always loved working with you and like working with you site to site and in our operations. Because I felt that also from Heinmann perspective was always about
Nadine Heubel:people and I could see this at your end too. So yeah, tell us a little bit more about this. And maybe also what he said about training like spending millions of dollars in training.
Jennifer Feldman:Well, first of all, I'm so happy to hear you say that because as an outsider looking in you yourself saw that so I mean, it's always interesting to get an outsider's perspective
Jennifer Feldman:because we're working really hard on it. You know, when other people notice it, we're like, oh wow. So anyway, it all starts with building an incredibly strong company culture. Most of our new hires
Jennifer Feldman:come from word of mouth, our onboard team, our most important ambassadors, both to our customers and future hires. So you know, people really talk about, you know, how it is to work at fe, and that
Jennifer Feldman:attracts more people and attract the type of people that are gonna fit into our culture, you know, because it's important. And I think that one thing that COVID has shown us is just how important
Jennifer Feldman:quality of life is, it's not just about the money. So we spent a lot of time pouring into our teams. And it definitely does show in the sales performance on board. You know, at the end of the end of
Jennifer Feldman:the day, you know, we are here to make money. And the ROI on this is proven. So, we recently started a new division called STEP, which is the support team for Effy personnel. And this department is
Jennifer Feldman:fully dedicated to the physical and mental health of our onboard teams. So we do monthly health and wellness contests, we check in with people who may be struggling. And we provide a safe judgment
Jennifer Feldman:free environment for anyone.
Nadine Heubel:And this is called STEP, this program?
Jennifer Feldman:STEP, Support Team for Effy Personnel. So it's been so great, and this was actually the brainchild of our president Bobby Hematian. And he came up with this, this is an initiative
Jennifer Feldman:that's super important to him. And, you know, it's been great. So when we have, you know, something that is troubling with with the team, not outside of the performance, right? We were like, Oh, let
Jennifer Feldman:some step team STEP in. We offer would you like to have a call? Anybody that is let go from our company for any reason. We check on them a couple weeks later, how are you doing? You got home? Okay, is
Jennifer Feldman:everything okay?
Nadine Heubel:This is really above and beyond what I've ever heard. And that's, that's amazing, because, uh, yeah, mental health is really definitely an issue and, and, you know, I also am always
Nadine Heubel:have have admired people working on board so much, because the conditions are not easy. You know, you work seven days you live in in small spaces. privacy's maybe limited, and so forth. But people
Nadine Heubel:come and come to work and with a big smile on their face. But I think it's still very important. Yeah, that they know that there is a place to go. So that's, that's amazing what you do.
Jennifer Feldman:Yeah. And imagine like, right, you know, when we came back returned to service, I mean, people, literally, all they could do is go to their store, go to their cabin, they're having
Jennifer Feldman:their meals in their cabins, the minute they stepped out, they had to wear a mask, they were doing testing, I mean, that the mental, you know, the mental strain was was real. And we had to be there to
Jennifer Feldman:support our team members, we made contracts shorter, we do whatever we could, you know, to make them comfortable. And, you know,
Nadine Heubel:Kudos to you sounds really, and that you're very, very caring company, which I think is great.
Jennifer Feldman:Like I said, that comes straight from the top right come straight from Bobby.
Nadine Heubel:And also the only way it works, you know, it needs to come from the top, otherwise, it's not authentic, and it comes in and when it comes on the top, then it's really a strong message,
Nadine Heubel:and it's really, really strong. So but let's talk a little bit about the category again. So where do you see fine jewelry? Where is this category evolving in the cruise channel? And then also besides
Nadine Heubel:fine jewelry, what other categories do you see as like a stronghold in the cruise channel?
Jennifer Feldman:Well, in terms of jewelry, we will definitely continue to follow trends and innovate. One big category that we're exploring right now is lab grown diamonds. So traditional mined
Jennifer Feldman:diamonds will always be the key driver of our diamond business. But there is definitely an appetite for the lab grown diamonds because of the price difference and the sustainability. And we are
Jennifer Feldman:differentiating the two by creating a proprietary brand called Reverie. So that way, we can differentiate to our staff and our customers. You know, because there's a tremendous value in the
Jennifer Feldman:traditional mined diamonds and there's tremendous value in the lab grown and you know, it caters to two different audiences.
Nadine Heubel:So it will be a completely different brands. So you will not be under the Effy brand it will be a different brand?
Jennifer Feldman:So it will be underneath the Effy umbrella but it'll be a brand underneath so it's Reverie by Effy is the name of the brand. Yeah. And we will continue to evolve the category as the
Jennifer Feldman:cruise industry evolves. And right now sustainability is a big initiative of all the cruise industry. So as we talked about lab grown, but also our marketing is changing. I think you probably recall,
Jennifer Feldman:there's a lot of paper, you know, a lot of paper we go in and there's little stacks of marketing, you know, in every cabin, the cruise lines are moving away from this. So we're pivoting to a much more
Jennifer Feldman:digital marketing experience. Regard to other categories. I definitely think gently loved luxury products are going to be a big category. Again, price and sustainability, right. And I also think drop
Jennifer Feldman:shipping is going to be very popular, which cuts down on the amount of inventory that companies have to have on board. So that kind of opens up to other categories like shoes that you never would see
Jennifer Feldman:any kind of shoes on a cruise ship, But if you were drop shipping, you know, and you only had to bring one of each size, maybe you could. And I do believe that there is a market for high end luxury. I
Jennifer Feldman:mean, we've proven ourselves with with Effy and, and fine watches. And there is definitely a market for high end luxury, especially for those people that maybe don't live in big cities, and they don't
Jennifer Feldman:have access to these types of products. And, you know, like, if you had a Christian loo baton, little boutique on board, you know, you're gonna get a lot of people that would never get to try on a
Jennifer Feldman:Christian Louboutin shoes, they have the money for it, you know, but they just don't live anywhere near you know, a store to try that on. And I also think another market will be large luxury
Jennifer Feldman:purchases, along the same reasons, right, there's people on board, and they are high net worth, but they don't have access to things like high end real estate and boats, right. And especially with
Jennifer Feldman:virtual reality, the way it is, like I could envision a seminar where you could do a virtual and you could look at these small yachts, or pleasure crafts, right? And you know, and actually have
Jennifer Feldman:somebody on board like selling these types of very high end luxury purchase, high end real estate condos in Miami, that kind of thing. So that is where I see the future.
Nadine Heubel:I think we have to do another episode. Because that's so so interesting, really talking about this besides to fine jewelry, which I find fascinating as well. And I'm learning so much
Nadine Heubel:today. But yeah, I love where you're taking this, that's not only retailing the product, which are on board, but beyond the products, which are on board, and then really using the opportunity of the
Nadine Heubel:guests, which is on board and we have a captive audience not just for a couple of minutes or for days and sometimes weeks. And how can we capitalize on it? Yeah. Thank you for sharing.
Jennifer Feldman:Yeah, definitely.
Nadine Heubel:And then he has also mentioned earlier in the introduction about Effy and all your operations on the cruise ship, that you also have a port shopping program, which in a way really
Nadine Heubel:revolutionize the way cruise lines are looking at Port shopping and how port shopping and shopping on board can actually not be rivals, but it can actually be complementary to each other. Can you tell
Nadine Heubel:us a little bit more about this as well?
Jennifer Feldman:Yes, I would love to. And the evolution of Port shopping is a direct result of the evolution of cruise retail. Actually, the whole port shopping program came about because there
Jennifer Feldman:really was no viable shopping experience on board. So guests were almost forced to shop ashore. And the cruise lines wanted a way to control and monetize that, you know, as they should. So when cruise
Jennifer Feldman:lines started stepping up the shopping experience through partners like Hyneman, Starboard, Duty Free, Harding, Effy that created the opportunity to shift the shopping message. So the message went
Jennifer Feldman:from only shop is sure to shop wherever you want. But definitely take a look at what's on board first. So that is how the shopping program sits today.
Nadine Heubel:Yeah, great. Because yeah, it's also something I Oh, we at Heinmann always welcome because you know, it felt kind of strange that you have somebody on board, who's basically advertising
Nadine Heubel:not to go to your stores. So I like what you said that guests should definitely have the freedom to look wherever they want. But maybe encourage them to look for us in the stores in retail. And
Nadine Heubel:because if they don't find it on board and go to the islands go online and look there, but at least combine both shopping experiences.
Jennifer Feldman:Exactly, exactly. There's such great shopping ashore, we will never ever steer the guests from shopping ashore. And there's so many products that you can find ashore that you can't
Jennifer Feldman:find on board, especially the locally made and the local owned and operated businesses. And you know, that's an important important part of the cruise experience, you know, so it's just saying hi, but
Jennifer Feldman:we also have this great selection on board, you can take your time, you can relax, you can go in and out, take you know, think about purchases over a matter of days, you know, so just letting people
Jennifer Feldman:know that, that that is available.
Nadine Heubel:So before we go into the rapid fire questions, I have one last question for you, which I asked all of my guests on the show. And this is really because it's a Seatrade podcast. And we
Nadine Heubel:really want to elevate retail and we want to help all stakeholders involved in retail to elevate also the category. So tell us what can Seatrade do to help make retails rife.
Jennifer Feldman:So I would say what Seatrade could do would be to continue giving a voice to retail continue getting the message out about cruise retail. I mean, I myself have been going to Seatrade
Jennifer Feldman:for at least 10 years. And it was only a few years ago that they had their first retail forum. You were on the panel. I don't know if you remember that. But we just loved that we were like wow, we had
Jennifer Feldman:never seen anything like that. And then you know, so continuing that type of thing. This podcast I think is a great idea. You know, just to get the word out and continue to allow us to get exposure to
Jennifer Feldman:these, you know, cruise executives and there's new like cruise lines coming every day and you know companies expanding into cruise. So the more you can get us in the forefront!
Nadine Heubel:Definitely stay tuned for seatrade this year. And then let's go to rapid fire questions. You ready for it?
Jennifer Feldman:Yes.
Nadine Heubel:Cool. So what's your favorite cruise destination?
Jennifer Feldman:I actually say Alaska. I did live there for a short period of time and I just love it. Yeah, just a very short period just a couple of months. But I just love the scenery. I love the
Jennifer Feldman:air. I love the food. I love the people. I just you know, just even the air there's better now. I love it.
Nadine Heubel:So favorite location on the cruise ship to unwind?
Jennifer Feldman:I would say the spa, when all work is done.
Nadine Heubel:Thats a great one. And then in the morning do you do buffet or a la carte for breakfast?
Jennifer Feldman:I love a la carte.
Nadine Heubel:I'm nodding. Bingo /trivia?
Jennifer Feldman:Trivia! Fun fact about me actually love trivia. I'm like a trivia wiz!
Nadine Heubel:What's your favorite? Sounds a bit curious.
Jennifer Feldman:Yeah. I like music. You know, that's a good movies. I know a lot about movies.
Nadine Heubel:Okay. Okay, so I know, I know who I have to team up next time!
Jennifer Feldman:Oh, absolutely.
Nadine Heubel:So what was the last product you bought on a cruise ship?
Jennifer Feldman:So the last product I bought was an eyebrow pencil because I left mine at home. But can I tell you about the last product. So I was on the NCL Premont for the shakedown cruise so I
Jennifer Feldman:was asked a few days before the shops opened. You know what we're setting up and everything and I have my eye on this beautiful gently used Chanel purse that I would go and visit every day. And so the
Jennifer Feldman:day the shops opened was like 10 o'clock obviously it was an empty store. I went over there at 1030 to see somebody else buying my purse!
Nadine Heubel:Oh my God!
Jennifer Feldman:So I did not get to buy my gently love Chanel bag. And that is when I realized and they they sold so many bags that day. That's what I realized.
Nadine Heubel:devastating. Oh my god, I hate I hate when this happens. But good for good for the for the retailer. Yeah, so what's your most favorite speciality restaurant on a cruise ship?
Jennifer Feldman:I love all speciality restaurants. I will tell you the most recent one I was at was the 150 central park on the Wonder of the Seas and it was magnificent out of this world.
Nadine Heubel:Okay, thank you for the recommendation. So last one is which retail operations on which ship is a benchmark in the industry to your opinion?
Jennifer Feldman:You know, I wouldn't say that there is a benchmark. And the reason I would say that is I think every retailer, just like Effy is working very hard on differentiation. And I think
Jennifer Feldman:everyone's doing a really good job, I guess, because I've been on a lot of cruise lines, like, you know, almost all the major ones since returned to service. And everybody is doing an excellent job
Jennifer Feldman:and everybody is doing it in different ways. So I'd heard you say that. It's a benchmark. Like there's some people that are partnering up with, you know, with timepiece companies. There's another one
Jennifer Feldman:that is working on being able to shop anywhere on the ship from the retail store. So there's a lot of really cool stuff going on, but it would be har
Nadine Heubel:I think it's a little bit of a cheeky question from my side as well.
Jennifer Feldman:I was like
Nadine Heubel:My guests are also diplomatic i i love it.
Jennifer Feldman:Well, that challenges.
Nadine Heubel:Exactly. Not only for this was amazing. Thank you so much. I I learned a lot. Although as I said, we've known each other for such a long time. I've learned so much new, really thank you
Nadine Heubel:for taking the time and speaking to us and I'm Hope to see you pretty soon somewhere in the cruise world.
