Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but what sparkles at mass is mostly gold.

Mass retailers use its versatility to show value and variety in assortments ranging from $9.99 earrings to $800 rope chain necklaces– with charms, pendants, bracelets and rings filling price tiers along the way.

Each item plays a role in this complex category, as 18 jewelry showcases are common at chains such as Ames and ShopKo, and Wal-Mart carries as many as 4,000 different skus, including a well– developed bridal business. That’s not all gold, of course.

At Ames stores, for instance, which will reach 450 in number once it converts all the acquired Hills units, tiffany & co jewelry offerings include lOK and 14K gold, sterling silver, watches, precious and semiprecious gemstones, diamonds and bridal. “We watch our sku count very carefully because this is a business that can easily get overassorted,” says Sandy Sansavera, senior vice president and general merchandise manager, soft lines at Ames.

Items range from an opening price point of $5.99 for a silver pendant to a sale-priced $299.99 diamond solitaire ring. Gemstone rings are always lOK, and Ames’ highest priced gold chain is $199.99.

That brings value to consumers and meaningful profits to the chain. “Jewelry margins exceed the chain average by five to six points; transactions are higher, and turns are slightly better than some of the apparel areas,” Sansavera adds.

Jewelry gets strategic front-of-store placement because “customers fall in love with it; it helps the store’s traffic pattern, and it shows how new and up-to-date we are on accessories,” he says.

The full-service jewelry area is the first merchandise that customers see when entering an Ames. (ShopKo also positions jewelry front and center.) “We’re very specific on planograms. Ninety-five percent of our assortments are the same in every store; shoppers know what to expect, and trained back-up staff is familiar with it all. As a chain, we’re where we need to be, although we might stretch the price range in an exclusive group of stores for the holidays,” Sansavera says.

“Jewelry satisfies a true ego [need] of the consumer. People give each other a lot of credit for jewelry purchases, and they’re very vocal when they feel they got a great bargain,” he observes.

To keep consumer confidence high in jewelry, Ames introduced a new showcase presentation that’s whiter and brighter and continues to display prices to help people self-edit their selections. Sansavera says his diamond and bridal businesses have been very strong the past two years. “As people get used to more mass product, they’ll accept there’s quality to it,” he says. As a result, he feels Ames will be ready to test a bridal registry in the year 2000.

By contrast, the 158-store ShopKo has no any bridal business. It focuses instead on 10K and 14K gold, sterling silver, watches, gemstones and diamonds up to a half-carat in total weight. The chain committed this past fall to diamonds as a chainwide fashion business, emphasizing cocktail rings and pendants, after testing in 30 stores last Mother’s Day. “We’d need a lot more expertise behind the counter to sell bridal,” says Kathy Steirly, divisional vice president, women’s accessories, fine jewelry, watches, cosmetics and fragrances for ShopKo. “Diamonds are new for us, and we’re extremely excited about it.”

She anticipates that diamonds will generate 10 percent to 15 percent of total dollar volume in 1999; Black Hills lOK gold about 33 percent; 14K gold percent; and gemstones and sterling silver the rest. “We’re running double-digit growth in our core gold jewelry business for five straight years, driving strong departmental gains during the same period,” she adds, citing overall jewelry margins in the high 30s.

Like many in the business, ShopKo is a high/low operator, selling percent of its jewelry at sale prices that are percent to percent off of everyday tickets, and advertising the department at least once a month. Circulars give jewelry front covers during peak seasons, and TV and radio campaigns run three times per year.

The chain’s highest price item is an $800 gold rope chain at regular price. For all the promotional excitement, however, people want quality and value, Steirly says.

We exited costume jewelry, and sterling silver is tremendously strong for us, starting at $5.99 for opening price point pendants. In diamonds, our customers don’t accept the flashy glitter pieces.

“Not everybody knows a lot about jewelry, but our customers know we’ll stand behind what we sell. People can return for any reason. We offer ring-sizing and special orders at no charge.” The chain also has brochures to teach about its specialty products, such as Black Hills Gold, a novel tri-color line of lOK gold bonded with other metals in rose, bronze and greenish tint.

“It’s unique to our part of the country and comes from the Black Hills of South Dakota,” she explains.

ShopKo certainly sees jewelry as accessories to apparel but isn’t setting up secondary displays within ladies’ wear. “It’s a maintenance issue of getting it done correctly in the stores,” observes Steirly, who spent 14 years at Target before coming to ShopKo nearly seven years ago.

However, the chain is experimenting with self-service countertop displays with items such as 14K earrings on sale at $9.99. And by this Christmas, about 60 percent of its watch inventory will be on open sale. “We tested last December and were pleased with the growth we saw,” she says, noting an assortment of Timex, Armitron dress and sport, B.U.M. license and private label ranging from $9.99 to $49.99.

Most jewelry offerings at ShopKo are for women, though men can choose from a selection of watches, 14K or Black Hills chains, 8-in. bangles , bracelets, and, on a seasonal basis, Money Clips, tie tacs and rings.

“Jewelry is like every other business. Make sure you’re on top of what’s new, what’s growing and making it great,” Steirly adds. “I don’t see any new categories or surprises coming at us.”

Of course, good planning means few surprises, and mass chains lean on their suppliers for consumer insights, hot product trends, new technologies and profitable strategies. ShopKo, for instance, relies on several sources for market intelligence.

Claudia Hollingsworth, senior vice president, sales at OROAmerica, a major supplier of gold products and one of ShopKo’s trading partners, pinpoints her company’s position: “We’re in a unique place between romancing a piece of jewelry and explaining that it’s fine quality. Jewelry isn’t a reach for mass consumers. Every woman in the world wants a piece of jewelry, whether she’s spending $75 or $1,000. The trick is making that jewelry the best bargain they can find. We have to create a desire to own it.”

David Schwartz, corporate director of marketing at ORO, adds: “In many suburban and rural communities, there may be no other retail choice but Wal-Mart or Kmart. You can’t think about Tiffany or Fortunoff. People go to the stores to check it out, driven in part by surfing on WebTV or watching QVC.”

Power retailers have grown bolder in jewelry in response to consumers’ reliance on them. Kmart, for instance, now places jewelry departments on the main traffic aisle of every new store. Target has created an accessories core in the middle of ready– to-wear, with gold jewelry flanked by watches and fashion jewelry, as well as belts and purses. Wal-Mart has built jewelry into a high-volume area across from high-traffic consumer electronics.

Those efforts will be even more productive if chains would designate category captains, says Mark Hanna, senior vice president, sales and marketing at Michael Anthony Jewelers. “No other departments would have anything comparing to, say, 16 vendors for a 96-charm program. When we get buyers to see their own departments through the eyes of consumers, they come around. We’re looking at a future world where data management is the key, and every store stands on its own performance matrix.”