ABOUT CRABTREE CONSULTING
Megan Crabtree has worked on both sides of the jewelry industry as an executive, leading retail buying and overseeing operations for the largest manufacturer in Manhattan. That combination is rare in this business, and it's why Crabtree Consulting can walk into a retailer's or a manufacturer's operation already knowing how the other side of the transaction thinks.
Crabtree Consulting is a boutique consultancy built around one belief: consulting means working inside the client's business, not advising from outside it. Every engagement is scoped from scratch, built on the client's own data, and executed by our team from start to finish.
We don't take commissions, kickbacks, or referral fees from any third party. That's not a policy. It's what keeps our advice worth taking.
OUR SERVICES
Project Management
A software transition or a company-wide process rollout can take months, sometimes years, and upper management doesn't have months to give it. We do. We provide project management for jewelry retailers and manufacturers who need a software transition, process rebuild, or company-wide initiative carried through without pulling leadership off the business.
We pull the information together across departments, coordinate the work, and carry it through from the first data pull to the finish, so leadership stays focused on running the business, not managing the project.
Price Strategy
Pricing decisions get made off last year's numbers more often than this year's competitors. We benchmark against both. We provide a pricing strategy for jewelry retailers and manufacturers, built around real competitor and market data rather than last year's numbers.
We set retail and program prices that protect margin without losing the sale, build the product programs that raise average sale price, and train the sales team to sell them with the confidence that comes from knowing exactly why they work. For manufacturers, that means the pricing and packaging is built around how their retail customers actually buy, since we know that customer better than most manufacturers do.
Data Reporting
Most POS systems can’t build the report a business actually needs, or force running several reports and merging them by hand just to get everything in one place. The report itself is rarely the hard part. Having the numbers in one place is. We provide custom jewelry business reporting, built by hand from your own exported data so every number that matters lives in one place instead of five.
We build the report by structuring the data into a working template. Whether the issue is margins, underperforming retailers, inventory that isn’t turning, or vendors falling short, the data stops being buried across five different reports and starts standing out.
Merchandising
What's selling and what's sitting in the case are rarely the same list, and most assortments get built off habit instead of history. We build off the numbers. We provide merchandising support for jewelry retailers and manufacturers, covering assortment strategy on the retail side and collection development and packaging on the manufacturing side.
For retailers, this means reviewing historical sales performance category by category, setting inventory minimums, and rebuilding the assortment around what the customer in front of you is actually buying. For manufacturers, it means building the collection itself and merchandising it so a retailer knows exactly how to present and sell it.
Training & Workshops
Most manufacturers ship products to their sales team and say go sell it, without product development ever talking to sales or marketing. We close that gap.
We train sales reps on what actually makes the product worth buying, how it’s made, and the specific things a retail buyer wants to hear, so reps walk into an appointment sounding like they understand the buyer’s business instead of reciting a spec sheet.
Vendor Negotiations
Aged inventory doesn't move because someone flagged it in a report. It moves when someone negotiates it out. We do the negotiating.
We walk into vendor meetings and trade show appointments with the data prepared in advance, negotiate the aged inventory out directly, and build the process so it runs the same way long after we've left the room.
Expert Witness
A legal or insurance matter involving jewelry needs someone who has run the business, not studied it from outside. That's the difference we bring.
We review records and financial documents, assess what's consistent with standard industry practice, work alongside forensic accountants when losses are in question, and deliver findings that are evidence based, confidential, and built to hold up in court.
Fractional Buyer
Every store needs a buyer and most already have one, usually the CEO. What they don’t have is the data, the current vendor landscape, or the time to dig into either. We do.
We review the current assortment, sales history, and vendor mix to find duplication and missed opportunity, bring vendor relationships and pricing knowledge the client doesn’t have in-house, and lead negotiations and product selection directly.
Growth Findings Retainer
Daily operations don't have time to catch what's slipping, and most businesses don't find out until it's expensive. We run the reports that catch it first.
Each cycle, we analyze vendor turn and aged inventory, missed reorders, retail pricing against the current market, and customer purchase history broken down enough to build targeted marketing lists and real follow-up assignments for sales associates. Every report comes with a documented process, so the team can run it going forward, turning a one-time answer into a permanent tool.
