(IDEX Online) - Santa came early to the U.S., delivering solid sales gains in November, the first month of the 2010 holiday selling season.

 

·         Specialty jewelers posted a double-digit sales gain and gained jewelry market share, according to preliminary November 2010 numbers from the Department of Commerce.

 

·         Further, the total jewelry industry grew at a high single-digit percentage during November, well above our earlier forecast, as well as above other analysts’ predictions.

 

·         Finally, the jewelry took market share from other retail sectors, based on November data.

 

These strong gains have been confirmed by publicly held jewelers such as Sterling, Tiffany, and Zale, all of whom reported solid sales gains for the all-important November-December selling period.

 

Here’s jewelry sales data for November 2010, the first month of the 2010 holiday selling season. The percentage change shown is versus the same period a year ago.

 

Category  $ Billions November 2010 Percent Change from November 2009 Total U.S. Jewelry Sales $5.7 +8.4% Total Specialty Jewelers’ Sales $2.7 +10.5%

 

The graph below illustrates the sales growth trends between specialty jewelers’ sales and total jewelry industry sales.

Source: Dept of Commercce

While specialty jewelers have lost market share during most of 2010, they gained market share in November, based on preliminary data, as shown on the graph above.

In addition, the following industry reports, including jewelry sales for November and December, confirm that November’s strong sales trends continued into December.

 

·         MasterCard – Holiday Jewelry Sales +8.4 percent

·         MasterCard – December Jewelry Sales +10.4 percent

·         MasterCard – Holiday Luxury Jewelry Sales +6.7 percent

·         MasterCard – Holiday Retail Sales (ex-auto) +5.5 percent

·         ComScore – Holiday Online Jewelry Sales +11 percent

·         MasterCard –Holiday Online Jewelry Sales +5 percent

 

Specialty Jewelers Took Market Share

It is also notable that specialty jewelers took market share from other merchants who also sell jewelry. These merchants, such as Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Sears, Kohl’s, Costco, and others, are typically multi-line retailers who sell goods at discounted prices. However, they carry a much more limited selection of jewelry than specialty jewelers. Clearly, jewelry shoppers were searching for “something special” during the 2010 holiday selling season, and they were willing to seek goods at merchants who aren’t known as discounters.

 

Source: Dept of Commercce

 

The U.S. jewelry industry fared well in November, when compared to other retail categories. Total U.S. jewelry sales rose at a greater rate than sales of other retail goods. This indicates that the jewelry industry took market share from retail merchants selling other categories of goods, as the graph below illustrates. All retail merchants (ex-automobile) posted a November sales gain of 7.9 percent (green bar). In contrast, total jewelry sales (red bar) jumped by 8.4 percent in November.

 

Source: Dept of Commercce

 

Outlook: Very Promising

It appears that the U.S. jewelry industry posted strong sales during the all-important holiday selling season. Full preliminary numbers will be available by mid-February.

 

Further, it is clear that 2010 will be a record sales year for the U.S. jewelry industry. Our estimate of 2010 U.S. jewelry sales remains at about $63.3 billion, up nearly 8 percent from last year, and 2 percent above 2007’s record $62.0 billion. We note that we may be conservative; Department of Commerce data for November indicates that the current annual “run rate” for U.S. jewelry sales is above $65 billion, but that is calculated by taking the current month’s sales and annualizing them.