How Lab-Grown & Brands Are Improving the US Jewelry Market

(edahngolan.com) - As we head to the Las Vegas shows in a few days, it’s worthwhile looking at the US retail market in order to understand what it’s going through today. The changes are many: some of them are slow-moving, whereas others are fast paced. Some changes have even slipped by almost unnoticed by many, but all of these are impacting the industry – retail and suppliers – enough to be worthy of our attention. Since most of my daily focus is on the diamond industry, the focus here will be mainly from that perspective. To put it plainly, matters do not bode well for the industry at large. If it weren’t for the Chinese market, the global diamond industry would be in far more serious trouble. The US jewelry retail market is highly fragmented; when it is growing, its growth is very slow, it’s fiercely competitive, and with many businesses closing every year. Clearly, the American consumer is also not as in love with diamonds as in the past. From the perspective of the diamond industry, this means that margins are thin, turn is slow, payments are delayed and at times skipped, and insecurity is a major component of doing business. In response, we are seeing several trends.