The American spring of 2013 gave a positive signal for the upcoming season, though it is too early to say about a wanton bloom.
After low sales in March, when the bulk of the population was preparing to file tax returns and pay taxes, April retail sales appeared to be rising on the backdrop of lower unemployment, higher housing prices and a strong stock market, posting +3.9 percent year on year and 0.6 percent towards March.
Jewelry sales in April were up 17.7 percent and reached $ 2.4 billion and for the first three months of the year the sale of jewelry gained more than $ 9.5 billion, which is 10.6 percent higher than last year, according to the Israel Diamond Exchange.
Judging by what was said by jewelry buyers, they were very reserved in expenses for “all that glitters” in March and in April. However, their mood turned much warmer in May, when all people seemed to have thawed after winter and become more open to buying jewelry and accessories. Also, there was a good reason to do that - Mother's Day.
According to some experts, Mother's Day in the U.S. is the second most important event in the jewelry retail after Christmas. Mother's Day is celebrated in the United States on the second Sunday of May each year and this year it was May 12. Another national holiday, the Memorial Day, also falls on the last month of spring and is celebrated on the last Monday of May. So, retailers had definitely something to base their expectations on.
The annual survey conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) revealed that more than one-third of Americans (34.4%) preferred jewelry as gifts for Mother's Day this year.
Your Rough&Polished correspondent took part in one of the retail exhibitions to mark Mother's Day and discovered that the majority of exhibitors had a chance to boost jewelry sales by 50% to 100% on this day compared to regular days off.
Jewelry stores had their share of success on Mother's Day as well. For example, the turnover of a local jewelry boutique in San Diego in May alone reached half a million dollars. The JCK conducted a series of surveys among jewelry retailers, which also proved that jewelers were satisfied with their sales for this holiday.
According to IBISWorld, a California-based marketing firm, Mother's Day sales went up just 0.2% to $ 17.1 billion, which is very close to the forecast of the National Retail Federation - $ 17.5 billion.
The highest dynamics were once again demonstrated by online sales. Gift purchasing for Mother's Day increased by 15 percent. In the three weeks prior to the event, jewelry sales almost tripled compared with the previous year posting an increase of 180 percent, according to IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark. Mobile sales went up almost 38%.
Positive data on total retail sales in May were also released by the U.S. Census Bureau, which said they rose by 0.6 percent compared to April and by 4.3 percent year on year, reaching $ 421 billion. Total spring sales from March to May increased 3.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
The main season for the jewelry industry will start in autumn gradually elapsing into winter holidays. The diagram provided by the National Retail Federation clearly shows that they account for the lion's share of holiday shopping. The positive dynamics of jewelry sales in May gave the retail trade a favorable signal about the mood of consumers.
Source: National Retail Federation
Olga Patseva, Editor in Chief of the American Bureau, Rough&Polished
