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Specialty jewelers see strong growth in June
While U.S. fine jewelry and watch sales, as well as sales from multi-line retailers, were down, specialty jewelers bucked the trend.
New York--U.S. fine jewelry and watch sales fell 2 percent year-over-year in June, the latest data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows.
But, an interesting trend occurred in jewelry sales for the month, according to jewelry industry analyst Ken Gassman.
Specialty jewelers--those retailers that sell fine jewelry and watches and little or nothing else--posted strong gains in June, with sales hitting $2.3 billion, a nearly 8 percent year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, jewelry sales at multi-line merchants declined nearly 8 percent in the month.
Gassman noted that while not common, this type of divergence in jewelry sales is not unrealistic. In May, overall jewelry industry sales were up while specialty jewelers’ sales were down. In other months in the past as well, including November 2014, there have been splits between the sales performances of the two.
There were two factors that came together to affect the June sales data, Gassman said.
The first is the U.S. Commerce Department’s major revision to its total U.S. jewelry and watch sales data. The other is the fact that June jewelry sales are modest in general, which means that any movement in sales can result in a large change in percentage for the month.
In his analysis, Gassman also noted that these numbers are based on a sample and more monthly revisions to come will help paint a better picture.
The new data from the Commerce Department’s annual revision shows that U.S. fine jewelry and watch sales totaled $74.7 billion in 2014, down from its earlier estimate of $78.1 billion.
The department also revised its data upward for 2012 but downward for 2013. The new figures ultimately show that the U.S. jewelry industry has posted only modest sales growth over the past few years.
The revised data also shows that specialty retailers continue to lose market share to multi-line retailers that also sell jewelry; they currently make up about 41 percent of total U.S. jewelry sales.
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