Sales forecasts positive for Christmas

What are the jewellery sales forecasts for Christmas 2017? Generally speaking, it is once again clear that the Christmas festivities, unlike birthday celebrations or other events, like graduations, births, anniversaries, are no longer the most popular moment for buying jewellery.

The 2017 forecasts indicate a lesser tendency (- 1.2%) towards buying gifts in general for the end of year festivities (84.8% compared to 86% in 2016). However, the inclination towards buying jewellery, watches and bijoux, is expected to increase from last year's 10.8% to11.2%. These are the figures that result from Format Research's survey conducted on behalf of Federpreziosi Confcommercio. Traditional sales points will be the favoured channel with a slight drop for those in the high street (from 51.7% to 48.7%) and an increase for those in shopping centres (from 48.8% to 52.5%). E-commerce sites will earn points (from 24.6% to 27%) as well as the on-line stores of famous brands (from 12.7% to 20.2%) while those of traditional jewellers will fall from 14.8% to 13.3%. Despite the increase in purchases through the e-commerce channel, whose advantageous prices are the main attraction, traditional jewellery stores - both on the high street or in shopping malls - are still preferable when it comes to buying jewellery. In fact, about three out of four of those interviewed feel that the jeweller plays an important professional and trustworthy role. Fashion certainly has a great influence on jewellery preferences: for years brooches, cufflinks and tiepins have been at the bottom of a classification that saw bracelets, watches, earrings and pendants holding the top places. In the timepiece field, preferences lean towards the cheaper price range up to Euro 500 with 73.6%.

The figures are in line with expectations. For several years, in fact, the jewellery sector has been recording a slightly better trend than other luxury goods and Christmas spending should confirm this trend.