American consumers’ zest for jewelry showed no slowdown during January, furthering a trend set in place during the 2009 holiday selling season. While there was no major sales event driving demand for jewelry in January, consumers – emboldened by a recovering economy ­– shook off the winter blues by shopping at their favorite jewelers.

 

Here’s the scoreboard for January U.S. retail and jewelry sales:

 

Retail Category January 2010 Vs January 2009 Total Retail Sales – All Categories +2.6% Total Retail Sales – Ex-Auto & Food +3.8% Total Jewelry & Watch Sales +5.8% Total Jewelry Sales +6.0% Total Watch Sales +4.3% Total Specialty Jewelers’ Sales +8.2% Total “Other” Merchants’ Jewelry Sales* +3.7% Source: U.S. Department of Commerce *New category – Jewelry sales at all merchants not classified as “specialty jewelers”. Includes Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s and others.

 

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce

 

Bridal Jewelry Demand Remains Strong

American jewelers continue to report that bridal jewelry – mostly diamond jewelry – is among their strongest categories. Merchants also report that some of the categories showing strong growth include special orders, estate jewelry, custom jewelry, designer jewelry and private label goods, all of which illustrate shoppers’ desire for “something different.”

 

Revisions to Prior Data

The U.S. Department of Commerce revises its retail sales data several times after preliminary numbers are reported. Here are newly revised sales statistics for the 2009 holiday selling period.

 

Outlook: Near Term & Longer Term Solid

Bridal jewelry sales are expected to remain strong, both near and longer term. Near term, there could be some modest pent-up demand for bridal jewelry, especially from couples who were married during the recessionary environment of 2008 and 2009 and who put off purchasing bridal jewelry until “things got better.” Longer term, the baby boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s will fuel demand for bridal jewelry, with a peak in demand coming around 2016.

 

On a month-to-month basis during 2010, we could see some choppiness in jewelry demand, depending on how the consumer reacts to a job market that is predicted to recover more slowly than normal. However, economic indicators continue to suggest that the recovery will be stronger than many economists had predicted.

 

IDEX Online Research believes that 2010 jewelry sales will show solid gains of about 4 percent, but that total sales levels will not recover to pre-recession levels until at least 2011.

 

For more detailed information on January 2010 retail and jewelry sales trends, please click here.