Honora.com Offers Offline Ecommerce For Retail Partners

Honora is thrilled to unveil a new website just in time for the holidays. In addition to a sleek, simplified look and feel, the new website offers a unique feature that will benefit both the consumer and local retail partners alike.

The new Honora.com introduces “Offline Ecommerce” which allows a pearl jewelry consumer to quickly find the HONORA design(s) of their choice and seamlessly send product information, a full wish list or an advertisement, along with their contact information to the local HONORA Authorized retailer of their choice.

After only being live for a few hours, this new feature helped a HONORA.com consumer to quickly contact Tappers Diamond and Fine Jewelry, a local Honora jewelry partner in Michigan, to close Honora’s first “Offline Ecommerce” sale. According to CEO Joel Schechter, “we wanted to empower our customers to quickly browse our designs and then easily contact the retailer of their choice to buy in-store. This is a great way to enable visitors of our site to get a hold of our pearl jewelry while maintaining our relationships with our long standing retail partners.”

This feature is only one of several new additions to the new Honora.com, including a new, robust, easy to navigate catalog as well as an improved education section and an entire area of the site dedicated to fans of HONORA Pearls. “We wanted to create a web based platform that reflects our brand, was easy to use and gives us the capability to grow as the web continues to mature,” says HONORA President Ralph Rossini.

You can find out more about the new features on Honora.com by clicking here.

About Honora

With a history of over 60 years in the jewelry industry, Honora now stands as the largest Freshwater Pearl Jewelry company in the United States. Honora’s focus on creating colorful and affordable pearl jewelry has helped open pearls up to the largest audience in the 100+ years of cultured pearls. The Honora brand is available at fine jewelry locations worldwide and select e-commerce platforms.

For more information, please visit us at:

Honora.com - www.Honora.com

Facebook – www.Honora.com/Facebook

Twitter – www.Honora.com/Twitter

Couture 2010 marches towards its 15th Anniversary!

Couture 2010 marches towards its 15^th Anniversary with over
100 brands already committed...

Stalwarts Like David Yurman, Gurhan, Alex Sepkus and Charriol lead the way

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (February 8, 2010) – June 3, 2010, marks the opening day of Couture 2010, which will be held at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas from June 3^rd until June 7th. Led by some of the most important and respected brands in the jewelry industry, Couture is positioned to deliver an exceptional event. The 2010 event will be the show’s 15^th anniversary and will be a celebration of Couture’s dedication to showcasing the best designers in the industry including luminaries such as David Yurman, Marco Bicego, Alex Sepkus, Charriol and many others. Couture’s long dedication to weaving together the right brands with the right retailers all in the Wynn hotel’s tremendous facility has proven to be an unbeatable formula.

“The Couture Show has consistently provided an important venue for us to market Alex Sepkus in an elegant, comfortable and civilized environment. We are able to spend valuable time with our customers building and maintaining the relationships that are the cornerstone of our success,” says Jeff Feero of Alex Sepkus.

In 2010, Couture is committing itself to deliver on its brand promise. Lee Arevian, Couture’s show director notes, “A luxury brand has to deliver a luxury experience. We can make some adjustments to better reflect the times, but in the end, the things that define Couture – the level of hospitality, the delivery of certain events, etc. – have to reflect the brands we serve. We’ve made a commitment to our exhibiting brands and our retailers that these certain key elements will remain untouched, and in some cases enhanced.”

The best brands and the best experience are only completed by the best retailers. And once again, Couture is leading the way. Our important Cornerstone Retailer program is being supplemented this year by the additional tier of identified retailers known as Signature Retailers. “While our Cornerstone Retailers represent the icons in our industry, and write huge amounts of business, our Signature Retailers represent an important component as well,” says Arevian. “Through careful mining of Nielsen data and extensive interviews in the designer and retailer community, we were able to identify over 200 retail companies that represent a powerful and vibrant group of retailers particularly skilled in selling designer jewelry. We’ve built a series of programs for them to ensure they have ample opportunity to network and interact with our manufacturers and designers and create a similar dynamic to that we have with our Cornerstone Program.”

All this is done with an eye towards continuing to build the “triumvirate of success” – the best brands, shopped by the best retailers in the best venue. Or, as Fiona Tilley of Gurhan puts it – “Couture remains the primary show on which we depend for the best buyers, the best sales and the best of experiences. All of our important customers make a point of attending Couture to meet with us and have remained committed to it.”

To register, click here

About Couture

Couture, at http://www.TheCoutureShow.com, is the world's most exclusive annual collection of leading international design icons and emerging stars designers and the best of Couture retailers. Set in the magnificent Wynn Resorts, Couture is the only destination where more than 85% of the world's most recognized designers and brands exclusively choose to show during Las Vegas Market Week. Now in its 15th year, Couture continues to be the benchmark for the industry standard for excellence making it the unparalleled event experience for the most prestigious designers and retailers in the world. Couture is an event produced by Nielsen Business Media.

Gen-Next: For the Next Generation of the Jewelry Industry

The latest buzz in the Jewelry Industry is Gen-Next! This is social networking on a new level - as this group goes beyond socializing. Formulated by a group of Industry leaders from various backgrounds this is your opportunity to bridge the gaps - retailer to manufacturer - and when you see who is sitting on their Executive Board - you KNOW this group is going to stay in the news!

Executive Board

Erik Halfacre - Traditional Jewelers
Jennifer Weinman
Josh Weinman - Tache
Lisa Nikfarjam
Matthew Rosenheim - Tiny Jewel Box
Michael Schechter - Honora
Russell Kwiat - Kwiat
Sean Moore - Borsheim's

The Gen-Next Story

Gen-Next Jewelers is the brainchild of a small Executive Board of Members who devised the

initial concept during the 2008 Centurion Show. While there were several social networking options available, no formal venues had been created for the next wave of industry leaders to connect and exchange ideas. This board felt it was essential to bridge the gap between retailers and manufacturers in order to encourage the open communication and develop initiatives necessary to effectively address the many challenges this generation will encounter. With these ideals in mind Gen-Next Jewelers was created to give opportunities to the next generation of current and future industry leaders.

Gen-Next held its first official event during the JCK Las Vegas Show. A select group of retailers and manufacturers were invited an informal gathering. These standout leaders within our industry were asked to be the Gen-Next Launch Membership. These Launch Members along with The GNJ Executive board reflect the multi-generational nature of the jewelry industry as well as the wave of leaders who have come to the jewelry world after experience in other industries. The expectation is that the GNJ membership will form a tight-knit group that will work closely to lead the jewelry industry into the next generation.

There was clear interest in Gen-Next Jewelers' desire to develop a community where the next generation of leaders can connect and act as a resource for each other. The response from both Launch Members as well as other Industry members who heard about the group was overwhelming. The ideal of bringing out-of-the-box and out-of-industry thinking to the jewelry world has connected with both active and perspective Gen-Next members.

For more info stop in at the Gen-Next website.