The “Delovoy Petersburg” biweekly has published a series of articles dedicated to wedding and engagement rings.
According to Andrey Tarasov, heading the promotion group of Yuvelirnaya Set 585, customers often prefer rings, which combine red and white gold. “Far and by, engagement rings are fast-moving goods. From the retail point of view, plain wedding rings are the most paying jewelry items: they are actually sold at their metal price plus the store’s mark-up. Another reason for wedding rings sale success may be eventual design “fluffs” in decorative jewelry unlikely in wedding rings.
Yuri Gulin, General Manager of Juwell SPb, says that among the most sought for are the wedding and engagement rings in the mid-price segment and lower. “They are symbols, not luxury items, but they also may attest the status of their owners. Here the choice approach depends on the customer’s level of income and taste. In Petersburg there are companies making exclusive things as for instance silver diamond rings.”
“Today’s supply is very wide and young couples may choose not from what there is, but from what they like,” says Sergey Bogomolov, Commercial Director of OAO Yuvelirnaya Torgovlya Severo-Zapada. “By and large, family values are re-examined. People now treat their matrimonies consciously entering into marriages of convenience and very often backing up their relationship with nuptial contracts. This is why they are ready to invest money into expensive jewelry things. Customers’ purchasing capacity in the premium-class segment is growing.”
Platinum wedding rings are the most popular things in the top price segment. However, according to Sergey Bogomolov, platinum is more preferred due to the ring owners’ status attitude.
“Lately, the number of marriages is conspicuously rising and this is why sellers have to broaden the range of rings on a permanent basis pushing upwards their output. As a rule, rings are ordered by people with higher than average incomes, but quite often less affluent newly-weds are ready to spend sufficiently large amounts of money for such a solemn occasion,” says Roman Fedorov, Commercial Assistant General Manager of OAO Russkiye Samotsvety. He points to some modern jewelry trends in making wedding rings. For example, plain items like incised rings and centrepiece rotating rings are being replaced with three-color rings made by way of diffusion welding.
Among unusual designs mainly offered by U.S. manufacturers are the rings made of steel, tungsten and titanium.
According to marketers, more than 30% of wedding rings represented in the premium class are made to order. This is explained by people’s striving for individuality as well as by vendors’ having no possibility to exhibit all the product range in their showcases.
One ring in the above-middle-class segment is worth from 60,000 to 120,000 roubles. First of all these are diamond pieces.
Wedding rings are mainly made of white, yellow and rose gold. Rings of combined gold are as a rule made to order. According to Sergey Zherdev, Commercial Director of the Diva jewelry boutiques, the age of newly-weds giving preference to rings made to order is 28-34 years. Young people are not so particular and mainly buy plain or incised rings.
According to the biweekly, the beautiful tradition to give an engagement diamond ring to one’s would-be bride is lately becoming more and more popular. According to marketers, today this tradition is strong in lovers of different income – they just give their favour to different levels of operators. Sergey Zherdev, Commercial Director of the Diva jewelry boutiques, says that as a rule young people are not fastidious about choosing rings: gold pieces with gems and decorative elements are being bought not only for engagement purposes, but also as wedding rings.
Bvlgari and Tiffany are among premium brands offering engagement rings. If the first one is laying stress on production, the second is concentrating on sales offering its products in more than 1,500 stores over the world. Brand marked rings are priced sufficiently higher in retail. Nevertheless, demand is only going up. “A plain ring may be priced at $100 and more. The main component of an engagement ring is the diamond and its size. However, in this country the engagement tradition is not so far finally rooted and in Russia a diamond ring is more appreciated as a good and expensive gift than as an engagement symbol,” Sergey Bogomolov believes. Turning to the ancient nuptial canons of the 18th and 19th centuries is also observed in the top price segment. As a rule, this trend takes its shape in silver rings made according to orthodox traditions with kissing pigeons.
