Jewellery industry survey: Surprising results!

The State of the Industry Report is largely an examination of history, what has happened and what events occurred over the past decade that shape the industry today.

Such a study offers more fascination due to the nature of the jewellery industry, which is often driven by trends and fads.

In addition to the qualitative analysis, Jeweller considered it appropriate to gain industry participants’ insight into their beliefs and attitudes to specific issues. 

Retailers and suppliers were provided with a set of 10 questions covering a wide range of topics.

A question in the back of our minds pertained to business in a post-pandemic world: Is your business now more profitable than before the COVID-19 pandemic? The results were quite surprising.

Another question confirmed a trend that we believed had been in place for some time: a shift back to the original purpose of owning a jewellery store.

Is custom-made and bespoke jewellery enjoying a revival? This was a common talking point among participants at this year’s International Jewellery Fair – and now this survey appears to confirm these suspicions.

Many other questions related to matters are covered in depth in this report, including sustainability, provenance, and the importance of digital marketing.

The survey sought to address broader industry sentiment about the state of the jewellery industry, testing ‘the pulse’ of respondents about the future of the trade. Some responses were expected, but many were most surprising, if not unnerving!

Lab-created diamonds have been one of the most passionately debated topics for many years, and yet, 50 per cent of retailers who responded to the survey said they are not important to their business.

The answers have also painted a vivid picture of the changing nature of the industry – more than 39 per cent of respondents advised that they plan to sell their business or retire within the next five years.

This would suggest that the evolution or ‘changing of the guard’ within the industry is far from complete.

This research is, of course, quantitative, not qualitative. This survey measures the number of people who have a view or belief about a topic – but does not explain why they feel that way.

Generally speaking, a quantitative survey provides the numbers (percentage of people) to assess or disprove a study’s broad points.

Qualitative data, on the other hand, provides the details and the depth to understand the full implications better. 

In other words, a quantitative survey can provide a snapshot of more significant issues that qualitative research can further investigate.

Another difference is that it’s not as easy to control the number of responses or respondents in a quantitative survey, which could result in over or under-representation.

To that end, the retailer survey has an over-representation of JAA members at 29 per cent.

As a percentage of Australian jewellery retail stores, the JAA retail membership is only about 10 per cent or even as low as seven per cent.

However, and somewhat ironically, this over-representation delivers the JAA a damning message from retailers and a worse message from the survey of the supplier/wholesaler channel.

While the exact membership of suppliers/wholesalers to the JAA is a mystery, it is believed to be an insignificant figure compared to the number of industry suppliers – large and small.

That said, JAA supplier members are over-represented in the survey at 25 per cent and, again, the message to the JAA is clear.

About 85 per cent of respondents said the JAA gives little or no support to industry suppliers.

Regardless of both survey results, they offer an intriguing insight into the past decade and an even more exciting glimpse of the future.

SURVEY RESULTS Retailer Snapshot The first thing to consider is that while these survey questions are broad, some relate to another topic as a type of ‘check question’. For example, the question about the importance of provenance to consumers is supported by the question about eco-friendly and sustainability, so the two results can be compared. Lab-created diamonds feature heavily in mainstream media as being vital to consumers, but what is the reality on the retail ‘coalface’, where it matters? Question two can also be read against question eight, and it makes for an interesting result. Likewise, the perception of industry organisations is important to review, and it’s noteworthy that the buying groups are clearly held in high regard, while the reputation of the Jewellers Association of Australia is in question. Digital marketing is another interesting point of contention. Consultants and experts all say it’s more important now than ever before; however, this survey suggests that retailers are yet to see a clear connection between sales and online marketing.

SURVEY RESULTS Supplier Snapshot As you can see, more suppliers than retailers say their business is now more profitable than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Question two addresses product planning, ordering, and restocking by retailers which clearly remains tumultuous, with just 1.2 per cent of suppliers suggesting that this aspect of the trade is in ‘excellent’ condition. It’s also interesting to compare suppliers’ issues about provenance and proof of origin (question eight) to those of their customers. Lab-created diamonds remain a passionately debated topic within the diamond industry, for suppliers, it’s clearly of little concern. Suppliers also seem to have little regard for the JAA’s support of the wholesaler sector,  with around 85 per cent saying it is average to very poor. Suppliers also appear to hold Australia’s buying groups in high regard, with more than 37 per cent of responses suggesting that these groups offer a valuable service to retailers. Interestingly, around 29 per cent of respondents say they’d like to retire or sell their business in the next five years.

Methodology

Two sets of 10 questions were created to survey retailers and suppliers.

Many questions between the two groups were similar or identical as they were equally relevant and important to each side. The surveys were undertaken using Survey Monkey, a digital research platform and emailed using Jeweller’s comprehensive database.

The retailer survey began on 31 October and ended on 17 November with more than 200 independent retailers responding, which is estimated to be around 10 per cent of the market.

The supplier survey was opened on 9 November and closed on 17 November. It received 52 responses, which is estimated to be between 8-10 per cent of the market.

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