The 11-year-old fine jewelry label is opening three stores this fall, starting on Saturday with a location in Los Angeles at 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard. Later this fall, the brand will open stores in Houston at the Galleria and Boca Raton, Fla., at the Town Center at Boca Raton.
This is the first time Ring Concierge is expanding its retail footprint beyond New York City. The brand currently operates out of a private bridal showroom in Midtown and has brick-and-mortar storefronts in West Village and on Madison Avenue.
“We are very bullish on brick-and-mortar retail being incremental to our business because right now, stores only make up about less than 10 percent of our revenue,” said Nicole Wegman, chief executive officer and founder of Ring Concierge. “Our revenue is essentially online and so knowing that stores are incremental, there is definitely a path to us becoming the largest private jeweler through brick-and-mortar retail, in addition to continuing to grow e-commerce.”
Wegman explained Ring Concierge’s two New York City locations are proof of concept that its retail model can work in other regions. According to the CEO, Ring Concierge’s New York stores generate $6,400 a foot, which she said is higher than that of Apple and heritage fine jewelry labels.
Ring Concierge’s fine jewelry styles.
She explained that although e-commerce comprises most of Ring Concierge’s revenue, the brand sees opportunity in brick-and-mortar retail. Wegman stated 70 percent of in-store customers are shopping from the brand for the first time and that 80 percent of them were already familiar with the brand and intentionally visited the stores.
“What that tells us is there is a customer who follows Ring Concierge, has an affinity for the brand, but is not comfortable making that first transaction online,” she said. “They want to see the product and they want to experience the brand, which is why they’re going to the stores.”
Wegman stated the brand’s decade of data has indicated Ring Concierge’s biggest markets in the U.S., which helped determine where to open the three storefronts. She explained New York City is the brand’s number-one market, which is then followed by Los Angeles.
The CEO said Houston is not the brand’s third largest market, but the store’s location in the Galleria presented a lucrative opportunity as it is a luxury mall with a high level of foot traffic and tourism.
“We are going into some of our biggest markets, but also testing markets that are a little bit smaller for us to see what that halo effect could be and what that increased brand awareness can be in a market like Houston,” she said.
Ring Concierge’s three new stores will be modeled similarly to the New York City storefront and will offer the brand’s full lineup of fine jewelry. While Ring Concierge is rooted in creating bespoke engagement rings, the brand’s fine jewelry category — which it entered three years after launch — now accounts for roughly 70 percent of the company’s revenue.
“[Fine jewelry is] definitely a very important category for us,” Wegman said. “Bridal is just a harder category to scale — it’s very high touch. You’re also reaching a customer at a single milestone in their life and there isn’t necessarily a repeat purchase that you would see in fine jewelry. The other piece of fine jewelry that is very exciting for us is we can speak to women directly and empower them to buy themselves a piece because they feel like they deserve it, whereas bridal you’re speaking to a couple, you have to get two people to get on board with the decision, so it’s just a little bit of a trickier, more nuanced category.”
Ring Concierge’s fine jewelry styles.
The new stores will showcase models of Ring Concierge’s engagement ring settings to allow customer to try them on. Customers are then able to connect with Ring Concierge’s engagement ring specialists in New York to schedule remote appointments.
Wegman explained the brand is also looking at ways to expand its bridal showroom to new cities. She said Ring Concierge will first start experimenting with new formats at its New York showroom before expanding to new cities.
Ring Concierge’s new stores follow a banner year in 2023 when the company celebrated its 10th anniversary and a sales milestone of generating $100 million. According to Wegman, the brand sells a piece of fine jewelry every five minutes, and its bestselling Mini Tennis Bracelet generated $12 million in sales last year.
Following the three store openings, Ring Concierge is looking at markets like Washington, D.C., Boston and Chicago for its next retail locations. Wegman said the brand aims to open a handful of stores every year.
“It’s going to be slow, it’s going to be careful, it’s going to be calculated, but at the same time we know we need to expand into these other cities and there’s massive opportunities,” she said. “The New York stores were profitable in less than 12 months, so the build out is paid for and the whole store is profitable in a very short period of time. If we can replicate the success of our New York stores in these other cities, it will be a no brainer to continue rolling that out and see how far we can go with physical retail with Ring Concierge.”
