Were Mother’s Day Jewelry Sales On The Rise?

with, didn’t offer any special promotions for the holiday.

For Sue Sandalon of Sue Sandalon Jewelry Design, Mother’s Day didn’t seem to be on her customers’ radar.

Sandalon set up shop 25 years ago in a strip mall just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, designing one-of-a-kind pieces and reworking old jewelry into something new.

“The Hallmark holidays have never been strong,” Sandalon said, pointing specifically to Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

It was a good week nevertheless, she said, with quite a few presents picked out to celebrate graduations as well as birthdays and anniversaries.

The boutique sold diamond bracelets and a few pairs of earrings, but nothing specifically for Mother’s Day.

There were no promotions going on, but Sandalon did wish her Instagram followers a happy Mother’s Day.

Midwest: Looking Up

Bill Longnecker of Longnecker Jewelry in McCook, Nebraska, had an “excellent” Mother’s Day, seeing sales increase 50 percent compared with last year.

Custom jewelry was a hit this year, he said, accounting for most of his holiday weekend sales.

“We gave 20 percent off for Mother's Day gifts. No one asked for those,” Longnecker said.

Born and raised in Nebraska, Longnecker has run his jewelry store for the last 22 years.

The surrounding agrarian community, consisting of many farmers and ranchers, was hit hard by floods and a brutally cold winter.

As cattle and crops died off, fewer customers spent money on non-essentials and Valentine’s Day sales were bleak.

It took a while for business to pick back up, Longnecker said, but he is happy to see the business spring back.

Cody Miller of Alan Miller Jewelers reported strong sales for the holiday as well.

His father, Alan Miller, set up shop in Oregon, Ohio, a city in the northwest portion of the state just off Lake Erie, back in 1987 and has been running it with his family ever since.

Sales were on par with last year, Miller said, with most customers stopping in for silver jewelry and diamond studs, including a few larger diamonds.

A five-year interest-free promotional plan was being offered to customers for the holiday.

“It costs us quite the percentage, but I think it helped draw in larger diamond sales,” Miller said.

The store pulled out all the advertising stops, running radio, TV, direct mail, and prints ads, which still do surprisingly well, he added.

On the social media front, the store draws in customers with Facebook ads.

South Central: Warming Up

If everything is bigger in Texas, then Mother’s Day is no exception.

Susan Eisen of Susan Eisen Fine Jewelry & Watches in El Paso, Texas, said she had a wonderful Mother’s Day.

It was no easy feat, Eisen said, with more and more customers coming in for custom-designed pieces or looking for guidance on what to buy.

That can make it hard to market to customers, she said, but this year was better than previous years in some ways.

Team-selling was key for the retailer, working together to get a sense of the customer’s style and making fitting recommendations.

“You have to be improvising and changing all the time. You cannot do what you used to do and expect the same kinds of results,” Eisen said.

There were no special promotions for the holiday, but most customers left with silver jewelry, including some that featured gemstones.

The Texas jeweler regularly reaches out to customers old and new via social media, email blasts, and a billboard, but did not employ any holiday-specific advertising.

Meanwhile in Magnolia, Arkansas, Mark Williams of Murphy’s Jewelers had a store buzzing with people when National Jeweler called Thursday.

“Our year, fortunately, has gone very well,” Williams said, noting that sales this year have been “way up” compared with the last two years.

His grandfather Jerome Murphy founded the store in 1939 during the South Arkansas Oil Boom, according to the store’s site.

This year marks the store’s 80th anniversary, and Murphy said that though there were no Mother’s Day-specific promotions or advertising, customers have been coming in to take advantage of the store’s anniversary sales.

He added that they have been especially interested in diamond jewelry.

West Coast: Mixed Results

Out west, Bill Maxey of Butterfield Jewelers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, echoed the so-so sentiments of several jewelers National Jeweler contacted.

Maxey said sales this year were “fair,” but also noted that it’s not usually a big holiday for the store.

He also noted an uptick in requests for custom jewelry but said that many customers stopped by at the last minute, not giving the necessary two-week minimum to make a custom piece.

And though there were no promotions going on, customers were looking for deals.

Fewer customers are shelling out big bucks for the holiday, Maxey said, with some customers looking to spend between $30 and $40.

On average, customers were spending in the $200 to $400 range.

The top-sellers were low price-point items, mainly silver jewelry such as necklaces and pendants, but a few customers bought gold jewelry as well.

Meanwhile, Brenda Johannes-Boyd of Johannes Hunter Jewelers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, used social media to draw customers in for the holiday.

“Mother’s Day was solid relative to years past,” she said, noting that in-store traffic was “significantly up.”

The store, which opened its doors in 1988 in the bustling University Village Colorado Shopping Center, posts frequently on Facebook and Instagram to showcase its offerings and special promotions.

This year, the store highlighted its “origami critters,” which are sterling silver pendants in the shapes of origami-style animals, appealing to both moms and pet moms.

Boyd said the whimsical pendants, featuring cats, dogs, and other animals, were the most popular, but not a high-ticket item, selling for around $129.

Though the store has a strong social media presence, Boyd said most customers find them through a Google search.