(IDEX Online) – Diamond jewelry represents by far the most important product category for American retail jewelers, according to newly released data from the Census Bureau’s Economic Census.

 

Further, over the past two decades, the sales mix of diamond jewelry has shown a steady increase.

 

Highlights from the Census Bureau’s Economic Census about specialty retail jewelers’ sales mix include the following:

 

·        Diamond jewelry represents almost 43 percent of a typical specialty jeweler’s sales. If the category “other loose gemstones” – which is mostly diamonds – is included, diamonds and diamond jewelry generate nearly half of all specialty retail jewelers’ sales. This sales mix is in line with the Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Survey.

 

·        Watch sales are the second largest product category for specialty jewelers. The watch sales mix has been increasing slowly. This is in contrast to other industry research that suggests that watch sales are declining modestly.

 

·        Gold jewelry sales have fallen by about one-half since 1992.

 

The following table summarizes specialty retail jewelers’ sales mix since 1992, based on findings from the Census Bureau’s Economic Census.  

 

Source: US Dept of Commerce & Census Bureau

 

Specialty Jewelers’ Sales Mix

The best public information about specialty jewelers’ sales mix comes from the Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Survey. IDEX Online Research maintains a summary of JA’s sales mix beginning with data from 1991. It is easy to see trends such as the decline in the importance of diamond jewelry and watches in recent years while spotlighting the increasing importance of fashion jewelry and estate jewelry for specialty jewelers.

 

The table below summarizes the most recent sales mix data for specialty jewelers, based on the Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Survey (2009 data published in the Fall of 2010).

 

 

Some jewelers argue that at least two new – and rapidly growing – categories should be added to this list: silver jewelry and charms (such as Pandora). Otherwise, the Jewelers of America list captures the sales mix for key jewelry categories sold by specialty jewelers.

 

In contrast, the Census Bureau has a different set of jewelry categories. In part, their categories line up – more or less – with the import / export categories that the Census Bureau publishes as part of its Foreign Trade database.

 

Broadly, the Census Bureau jewelry sales mix aligns with the Jewelers of America data – for example, diamond jewelry sales are the largest category for both databases. However, the Census Bureau has only seven jewelry categories versus fourteen (14) for the Jewelers of America report.