U.S. Jewelry Sales Post Solid Rise in February
April 17, 18
(IDEX Online) – Sales of fine jewelry and fine watches rose by 7.2 percent in the U.S. market in February 2018, when compared to the same month a year ago, as the graph below illustrates.
Sales were an estimated $6.6 billion, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Commerce Department.
The strong sales result were likely due to Valentine's Day.
Specialty Jewelers Market Powerful in February
Specialty jewelers in the American market took less market share from multi-line retailers who also sell jewelry, with sales of $3.0 billion.
Specialty jewelers posted a 10.9 percent sales rise in February from the same month the year before, however other multi-line merchants who sell jewelry generated sales of just $3.6 billion compared with $4.7 billion in the year-earlier month, as the graph below illustrates.
The graph below summarizes sales trends for specialty jewelers since the beginning of 2018. For American jewelers, grew strongly throughout most of 2017, and this year has started out powerfully for them with increases of 10.9% in the first two months of this year.
Specialty Jewelers Winning Market Share
While specialty jewelers had been generally doing well against multi-line merchants throughout most of last year, and that returned to be the case in February as specialty jewelers recorded a rise compared with a sharp decline at multi-line merchants.
The graph below summarizes the disparity between specialty jewelers’ sales gains and jewelry sales trends for all other retail merchants who sell jewelry. Specialty jewelers’ sales are represented by the red bars; multi-line retailers’ jewelry sales are shown on the blue bars.
Fine Watch Sales Slightly Higher Than Fine Jewelry Sales
By category, fine jewelry sales were up around 7.2 percent in February, while fine watch sales rose by 7.5 percent. February was the seventh consecutive month in which watch sales were higher than jewelry sales.
Consumer Demand Rises in January
Total retail sales of all goods, except autos, posted a 4.0% sales gain in February, after a 5.3 percent increase in January. All jewelry and watch sales saw a higher increase – up 7.2 percent. The graph below illustrates sales trends for all retail sales (green bars) versus sales gains for jewelry (red bars).
Strong Start to 2018 Jewelry Sales
American jewelry consumers, collectively, were clearly in a good mood in 2017 with robust sales reported throughout the year reflecting the healthy state of the U.S. economy.
That appears to continue to be the case in 2018 with strong sales in the initial two months of the year. Industry analysts will be keeping a close eye on the figures to see if the trend is continuing.