IDEX Online Research: Consumer Jewelry Expenditures - Americans Are Giving Less Jewelry as a Gift

American consumers cut back their gift giving of jewelry dramatically in 2005, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey. Only about 11.5 percent of consumers’ jewelry budget was devoted to jewelry as a gift, down from the prior year’s 14.9 percent.

Worse, jewelry as a gift has been falling for the past two decades. For example, in 1984, consumers spent more than 17 percent of their jewelry budget on jewelry as a gift for someone.

Finally, total expenditures for jewelry as a gift in 2005 fell to about $57 per American household, a 22 percent decline from 2004’s $73 per household.

The graph below illustrates the percentage of their jewelry budgets that Americans are devoting to jewelry as a gift.

Jewelry Gift-Giving Correlates with Income Levels, Age Groups Have Some Surprises

As would be logical, consumers with higher incomes engage in jewelry gift-giving disproportionately.

However, there are some surprises in jewelry gift giving by age. For example, young consumers and older consumers give jewelry as a gift much more frequently than middle-aged consumers.

The graph below summarizes jewelry gift-giving by major age group.

The statistics related to gift-giving by age in 2005 differ only marginally from trends in 2004.

The opportunity for jewelers is to encourage consumers to give jewelry as a gift to a loved one, in addition to self-purchase jewelry.