There has been a jewelry sales explosion since the COVID outbreak, and American consumers keep fueling it, buying jewelry en masse during the holiday season.
After US jewelry sales rose 36% in October, they leaped again, rising 51% at specialty jewelers in November. This continues the double-digit growth in US jewelry sales seen since July 2020.
The swelling demand for jewelry has turned around everything about selling jewelry in the past decades. The share of online sales has increased, share of wallet has leaped, diamonds are a thing again, specialty jewelers are capturing market share, and the slow growth of the past decade has been replaced by a massive expansion never seen before.
Jewelry sales explosion by the numbers
The rise in demand benefited every jewelry category sold by specialty jewelers, propelling most by a high double-digit in November.
In terms of share by value, rings dominated jewelry sales at US specialty jewelers, followed by earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. These last two, bracelets and necklaces, were also the jewelry categories that were the fastest growing in November.
Jewelry sales explosion: rings
In November, the best-selling items were rings, followed by earrings. Rings represented nearly half of all jewelry sales and averaged $1,855, according to an analysis by Tenoris. See below for more on this.
Engagement rings were the top sellers by value. If you cracked what drives increased sales during a crisis period, you would not be surprised to find that engagement ring sales leaped 44% year over year.
The average retail price of engagement rings shot up to $4,734, a very handsome 26% year-over-year increase.
Measured by the number of engagement rings sold, half of all sales (49%) were priced between $1,500 to $5,000.
Jewelry sales explosion: earrings
Earrings are a staple of the video-conference era. Why? Because in a video call, no one sees your bracelet, but everyone gets to see your new earrings.
Photo © Suzanne Sachs, Unsplash.
