Spa Wise: Boutique Retailing

For most clients, a spa isn’t only a place to have their faces cleansed and their bodies polished. It’s a place to feel pampered, valued and free to splurge. That’s why including boutique items in your retail department makes so much sense. However, unlike your average stand-alone boutique, you can’t risk a single square foot to items you can’t sell.

Many spa owners find that jewelry is a strong bet for their retail offerings. Beautiful yet space saving, jewelry appeals to a wide demographic and tends to be a great impulse item. The key is, however, choosing a line that will catch your clients’ eye, be friendly to their wallets and still reflect your spa’s style.

Cathy Witkos and Sarah Andrae, co-founders of Baroni Designs, understand these tricky needs. Their jewelry lines are found in such spas as Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, CA; Spa Du Soleil in Scottsdale, AZ; Fusion Wellness Spa in Invermere, British Columbia; and Spa Hollywood in Sarasota, FL. How did the owners/directors of these well-reputed spas decide that there was a place in their retail areas? We talked to Witkos to learn what makes her jewelry so spa-friendly.

How was Baroni Designs born?
Sarah and I were living in San Francisco. We both had backgrounds in jewelry, and we were both always looking for nice sterling silver items at reasonable prices. Ultimately we began to make them, and this slowly evolved into Baroni Designs. The company is now in its 16th year of business.

Did you always target the spa market?
No—in fact, our bread and butter has always been high-end galleries and jewelry stores. Since growing, we added catalogs, and gift and apparel stores. A few years ago, we starting working with spas, and they’ve all done really well with the line. So, we’re looking more at these lines of distribution.

How do you explain your success with spas?
There are a lot of different kinds of people who go to spas. Our pieces are made to be simple and adaptable. We personally have always ridden bikes, hiked and done yoga, so we made pieces that could be worn during activities as well as at work. Our jewelry tends to adapt to the individual style.

But don’t individual spas call for some variation?
Absolutely. We offer about 20 collections at any given time and offer new releases three times a year. We have lines that are silver, pearled, just for men and just for kids. Our Isle of Shoals, a sand dollar collection, does well in coastal areas. Some wellness-oriented spas enjoy our yoga collection. The common thread is that each line has a hint of trend, but in a clean way. There isn’t a huge variance.

How do you get and keep your customers?
We do several trade shows throughout the country, and we have independent reps throughout the country going to shows too. That’s where our orders come from.

Our existing customers consist of about 1,500 specialty stores plus our catalogue business. Fortunately, we have an incredible in-house sales staff at our studio in Arcadia, CA. There are reps for each customer, and they develop relationships with personal visits and phone calls.

We also offer displays for necklaces, earrings and bracelets, and can put them together for customers.

Any challenges?
Sometimes things slow down, so we offer different promos throughout the year. Overall we’re continuing to grow. The price of materials has an effect. The cost of sterling silver has tripled in the past three years, so we have to find ways to balance that while keeping prices reasonable. Still, we believe that our quality is phenomenal for the price.

To check out some of Baroni Designs’ collections, go to baronidesigns.com.

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