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Luxury Jewelry Strong For First Week Of Holiday Season | December 04, 2013 (0 comments)
Merrick, NY—The 2013 holiday season is off to a good start for luxury jewelers. According to the Centurion Holiday Sales Success Index spot-check survey of prestige jewelers, almost 87% of respondents saw sales increases in the first week of the season. This week’s survey covered the week leading up to Thanksgiving through December 1, including the first nights of Hanukkah, plus Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
In the broader retail picture, sales were less than stellar for Black Friday and the weekend—showing the first year-over-year decline since 2009—although Cyber Monday this week again posted record increases to become the biggest online shopping day ever. But stores that opened on Thanksgiving Day in hopes of boosting sales found the effort simply shifted sales rather than increasing them.
But luxury jewelry held its own last week. Fully one-third of respondents to the Centurion survey reported sales increases between 6% and 10% over the same period last year. More than one fourth (26.7% of respondents) reported increases of more than 10% over last year at this time, and the same amount reported modest increases between 1% and 5%. A few—6.7%—said the first week was even with last year, and the same amount saw their sales drop off by a good bit (more than 10% from last year). But that may simply be a case of timing, not of customer reluctance to shop: for example, one jeweler who reported a drop in sales hosted special customer parties the last two days of November; this year that event will be in December.
“Customers were very confident and spending on higher-ticket items,” wrote one California jeweler whose sales last week increased more than 10% over the same period last year. “Nice sales and increased traffic!” said another.
“We’re seeing more engagement traffic than last year,” observed a New England jeweler.
One third of prestige jewelers responding to The Centurion's survey reported sales increases between 6% and 10% over the same period last year (purple slice). More than one quarter each reported increases topping 10% (red slice) or more modest, between 1% and 5% (blue slice). 6.7% were even (orange slice) and 6.7% saw declines from last year (aqua slice).
Although Black Friday typically brings to mind door-buster sales for electronics and toys, about one third of respondents said it was a strong day and they credited it with their overall increased results.
Reactions were mixed about “Small Business Saturday,” a nationwide promotional effort launched by American Express in 2010 to encourage Americans to shop at local independent retailers.
“Saturday and Sunday were slammed after Black Friday. Black Friday was dead,” wrote one California jeweler, while another in Florida said “Black Friday was busy; however, Small Business Saturday has a lot of room for improvement.”
What drew shoppers in? For sure, the shorter shopping season played a role, but for most it was just a great payoff for many years of hard work. And a variety of promotions, such as one jeweler’s state “no sales tax weekend” helped as well.
“Just good loyal customers developed over many years,” wrote one respondent. Another jeweler observed that Thanksgiving brings many generations of family back home, so they came in while they were in town.
“We service generations of clients, so it was good to see so many families!” he wrote.
To these jewelers’ point, your best customers are the ones who keep coming back for more, even if they aren’t always the ones writing the biggest checks, according to this article on Fox Business’s Small Business Center.
Happy, loyal customers make great brand advocates because they often want to spread the word. As of June 2013, the average person has 130 friends just on Facebook and one million links are shared on Facebook every 20 minutes. That’s a lot of people who can be influenced by your brand advocates.
But the Fox article also cautions against treating your brand advocates as another marketing channel. Engage with them continually, and consider rewarding them with some kind of discount, deal, or treat for telling a friend, or including them in focus groups for product or merchandise development that will make them feel like an important insider.
Top image: DBADesigns.com