Articles and News
EXCLUSIVE CENTURION SURVEY FINDS LUXURY JEWELERS POSTED SOLID GAINS FOR MOTHERS’ DAY | May 15, 2013 (0 comments)
Merrick, NY—Fully 80% of respondents to an exclusive Centurion spot-check survey about Mothers’ Day business report their business for the holiday was up over last year, and 60% said customers spent more on Mom this year than they did last year.
60% of respondents said their business jumped by 10% or more over 2012 Mother’s Day sales. Another 20% saw sales increase between 5% and 10%. 6.7% of respondents said sales were even with last year, and 13.4% said sales declined by at least 5% from 2012 figures.
But despite customers spending more on Mothers’ Day gifts, it still remains a fairly low-priced holiday, even for luxury jewelers. Among respondents, a few reported their best-selling price point for the holiday in the thousands of dollars (generally between $1,000 and $3,000) but for most, the typical spend remained well below $1,000 and, for most, below $500.
60% of respondents to a Centurion spot-check survey said their Mothers' Day business grew significantly over last year (orange slice). 20% saw gains between 5% and 9% (blue slice), 6.7% stayed even (red slice) and 13.3% declined.
The runaway best-selling product at luxury jewelry stores was Pandora. Other brands cited included Honora, Simon G., Alex Sepkus, Vahan, Hearts On Fire, Rolex, David Yurman, Michele watches, and John Hardy; non-branded product categories cited as best sellers included gold, diamonds, and lockets.
The sales didn’t all walk in the door themselves, though one jeweler reported the weather helped the cause: “The weather was perfect. Saturday the rain canceled all sports for the children so they came to the mall to buy.” But other marketing efforts kicked in, including additional mailers and catalogs, more TV advertising, better staffing, adding new lines (Pandora and Encore by Ron Rosen), and for some, trunk shows. Online sales increased for some as well.
Social Mom. Separately, The Centurion identified four main themes among jewelers’ social media marketing for Mothers’ Day: a contest or promotion; a special event; product or sale; and sentiment or service. But we also noticed a surprising number of jewelers not posting any thoughts about the holiday.
Here’s a pictorial of what we did spot on Facebook (Twitter feeds were essentially repeats of the Facebook posts, and Pinterest posts were almost nonexistent).
Here were some jewelers' contest and promotion posts, from The Wedding Ring Shop, Wick and Greene, and B.C. Clark:
David Gardner's Jewelers, Tivol, and Hamra posted about special events:
A product or sale was the most popular kind of Mothers' Day post for prestige jewelers:
And, finally, some good old-fashioned sentiment and service:
