Jewelry Stores Destination of 12% of Holiday Shoppers

Twelve percent of U.S. holiday shoppers plan to head to traditional jewelry stores but 44 percent will do their shopping online, noting convenience as a prime factor, according to a survey commissioned by Deloitte.

The 20th Anniversary Holiday Mood Survey of retail spending and trends found that 68 percent of households, surveyed nationwide, said they are likely to spend the same or more this year than last.

When asked about  their favorite shopping venues , the top choice was discount department stores at 57 percent, followed by the Internet, at 44 percent.

While not specifying what they will purchase, 31 percent of respondents  said they plan to spend the most money at discount department stores, compared to 15 percent who said they would spend the most on the  Internet. Asked why they shop on the Internet, all top four reasons had to do with convenience, most commonly responding “It's easier” and “Higher gas prices”.

Further encouraging news for online retailers this season- more than 58 percent of shoppers plan to combine shopping online with shopping at retail stores,. They will join over 30 percent of shoppers who plan to shop entirely online, according to a survey of more than 1,400 online and catalog shoppers by I4 Commerce.

U.S. jewelry sales are expected to increase by 3-4 percent this holiday season, according to a report by IDEX Online Research. The report predicts that U.S. holiday jewelry sales will reach $15.65 billion, up more than $400 million from 2004 holiday jewelry sales. This represents an increase in sales of about $16,000 per specialty jewelry store in the U.S.

The report notes mall sales of jewelry will come under pressure with consumers turning to off-mall retailers, such as a the large discount chains, for their holiday purchases resulting in a decline in mall-traffic this year.