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Merrick, NY—While the 2013 holiday season was a runaway success for prestige jewelers, 2014 is getting off to a slower start. An exclusive Centurion spot-check survey of better jewelers’ Valentine’s Day sales shows less explosive growth than the sector experienced for Q4 2013. While more than half (54.1%) of respondents did post growth over last year’s Valentine’s Day sales, 41.7% said their sales declined this year.

20.8% of respondents said sales growth was “significant,” or at least 10% higher than last year. 25% said sales increased between 5% and 9% over the 2013 holiday. By contrast, 20.8% also said sales declined by 10% or more, and 16.7% saw declines between 5% and 9%.

While the 2014 figures are in positive territory overall, they were weaker than last year, where two-thirds of respondents saw increases over 2012 Valentine figures.

Mother Nature may have as much to answer for in the luxury sector as anywhere else. A report this week in National Jeweler found the weather has dampened not only Valentine’s Day but all jewelry sales so far this year in many regions of the United States.

Luxury jewelers' Valentine sales were on par with the industry as a whole: mixed. While 20.8% had significant sales growth over last year's holiday (orange slice), an equal number had significant sales declines (aqua slice). One-quarter posted respectable sales gains between 5% and 9% over 2013's holiday (blue slice), while 16.7% declined by that same amount (brown slice). 8.3% saw modest increases between 1% and 4%, while a small number of respondents reported flat sales or slight declines (orange and green slices).

In terms of what sold in luxury jewelry stores and for how much, respondents were split between big and small. Not surprisingly, diamonds were the runaway best-selling product at the high end, with diamond fashion outselling engagement rings among survey respondents. On the low end, Pandora won out, beating every other category significantly.

For best-selling price points, respondents most often cited low: under $500 and, in more than a few cases, under $100. But at the other end, sales above $2,000 were strong and sales above $5,000 also made a good showing. 34.8% of respondents said their average Valentine ticket was higher than last year, 26.1% said it dropped from last year, but most (39.1%) said it was about the same.

Almost three-fourths of respondents (73.9%) reported their average ticket was the same (purple slice) or higher  (orange slice) than last year's Valentine sales. But more than a quarter (26.1%, blue slice) said consumers were spending less.

Who is buying Valentine gifts? Again, to no surprise, the most common sale is to a man buying a gift for a woman, with 100% of respondents indicating that was their main Valentine customer. But 82.6% also sold a lot of men’s gifts to women—and more than three-quarters of respondents (78.3%) reported sales of gifts for same-gender partners.

Finally, Valentine’s Day isn’t only about romantic love, according to Centurion respondents. Almost three-fourths (73.9%) reported significant sales of Valentine’s gifts that represented familial affection, such as a mother buying a gift for a daughter or granddaughter, or vice versa. (Editor’s note: respondents were asked to choose all categories that apply; hence totals equal more than 100%.)

Top image: Almanac.com