IDEX Online Research: U.S. 2008 Jewelry Sales Figures Revised Down to $60 Billion

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released a massive revision to its databases last week, and virtually all areas of consumer spending data were revised. With the stroke of a pen, the U.S. jewelry market shrank to $60 billion in 2008. This figure is 8.7 percent lower then the previously reported $65.7 billion in 2008 jewelry sales. 

While the BEA said it revised selected data back to 1929, data for the jewelry industry was unchanged prior to 1993. 

Here are the highlights of the BEA revisions:

·        U.S. jewelry sales in 2008 of $60 billion were down 2.7 percent from 2007's $61.6 billion. Prior data indicated that jewelry sales were up 0.4 percent for the year to $65.7 billion, a number that did not seem possible in the recessionary environment.

·        Specialty jewelers’ sales in 2008 were about 47 percent of total jewelry industry sales, up from the previously reported 43 percent. IDEX Online Research has contended that specialty jewelers generate about half of all U.S. jewelry sales; the new data confirms this.

·        The BEA will now begin reporting separate sales numbers for watches, which were previously included in with jewelry sales. BEA data indicates that watch sales are just over 11 percent of total jewelry industry sales; this number correlates very closely to the 12 percent sales mix reported by the Consumer Expenditure Survey as well as the LGI Network sales data for “fine” watch sales. 

IDEX Online will publish a full analysis of the BEA revisions in the coming days. An early analysis of the revised numbers indicate that while dollar figures have changed, jewelry business trends are mostly the same. 

The Department of Commerce also revised jewelry store census numbers. It appears that there may be fewer jewelry stores in the U.S., probably about 5 percent less than previously reported.