Jewelry Stores & the Commission System: A Jewelry Salesperson's View of the Jewelry Shopping Experience

I love jewelry. I love talking to people about jewelry. So when I saw a job opening at the jewelry counter of a large department store, I jumped at the opportunity. I was a bit disappointed to find out that the pay was only $6.50 an hour plus commission, but decided to join the sales team anyway.

Shortly after I completed my training, I learned about the commission system. I had always imagined that the commission rates were the same on all items. People would ask me if I would rather have a pearl necklace or a diamond pendant of the same price, and I would honestly tell them if I thought the pearl necklace was of better quality and would make a better present. One of the other salespeople noticed this, and explained the commission system to me. We would make 6% commission on diamond jewelry, 3% commission on gemstone jewelry, and for some odd reason, pearls had an even lower commission rate of only 2% of the purchase price. So if you were going to sell a $100 pearl necklace, you would only get $2. But if you sold a $100 diamond pendant, you would make $6. That's 3 times as much money selling diamonds rather than pearls!

Sometimes people came to the jewelry department knowing exactly what they wanted. Other people would know they wanted a specific gemstone. But many people came in completely unsure of what to buy. We did not have high quality diamond jewelry for the most part. Anyone who looked at our diamond jewelry with a loupe would usually not buy anything. A lot of our gemstone jewelry however, was very nice. But if given the opportunity, any salesperson there would try to talk someone into buying diamonds rather than gemstones.

If the commission rates on all items were the same, salespeople would be a lot less biased in their advice on what to choose. Of course, they'd still want you to buy the most expensive item, but you probably came into the store knowing your budget. When you came into the store and asked the salesperson for advice, you probably assumed that the salesperson was on commission. What you probably didn't know, was that the commission rates differed depending on what category the items fell into. So while you were expecting honest opinions and helpful advice from the salesperson, you probably got the sales pitch for the items gaining the salesperson the most commission.

To me, this seems a bit contrary to what we learned about customer service. As salespeople, we were expected to be helpful and courteous to the customer. At the same time however, on average we only made $8 an hour. We all wanted to do whatever we could to raise our paychecks, even if it meant telling customers a piece of jewelry they would truly enjoy was not as good as a piece of jewelry which would earn us more commission. Deceiving the customer hardly seems like good customer service to me.

Our location was rather slow. We never had the problem of salespeople ignoring customers. I noticed however, as a customer, that this commission system can have a very adverse effect on customer service. In busy areas, many customers come to the jewelry counter. To me, whenever this rarely happened in our location, it seemed that the logical decision was to help customers in the order they came up to the counter. However, as a customer going to busy stores, I found that many salespeople do not use that kind of logic. I would be interested in a $20 silver ring and I came up to the counter right after the person currently being helped. After me, someone walked up to the gemstone case. A few minutes later, someone walked over to the bridal diamonds case. If I were the salesperson, I would have helped the customers in the order they came in. This was not the case where I went. First, the salesperson walked over to the customers looking at the bridal sets. Then, she helped the woman looking at gemstones. While she was helping those customers, other customers came in to look at gold necklaces. She then went over to see them. And 30 minutes later, she finally gets to me. Nevermind that none of the other customers purchased anything, they had more potential for earning her commission than I did. I absolutely would have bought that ring if she would have come over and taken it out of the glass case for me to see. But after waiting 30 minutes, I was in no kind of mood to help earn her any commission, no matter how small the amount. Her strategy of trying to get the customers with the most potential commission lost her the only sale she could have made in those 30 minutes.

While commission can make some people more motivated and more interested in helping customers, to me it seems like a bad system. Every week you worry about meeting goals. Every paycheck you cross your fingers that you made enough. If the store is slow, it is not your fault, but your paycheck suffers. Add to that varying commission rates, and soon good salespeople begin unethical practices in order to make ends meet. I think that customers need to be aware of the issues with commission based pay. If you're buying jewelry, you should be able to have a pleasant experience that wasn't interfered with by the commission system. So next time you're shopping for a gift in the jewelry department, be aware that you may be pushed towards the diamond section. Buy what you really like and keep in mind the biases of the commission salesperson.