Christopher S. Nelson 
This year, heart shaped pendants should be seen and not worn, but not because someone picked the wrong gift. The NRF expects jewelry sales to fall nearly 30% to $ 4.1 billion year-on-year.
Is someone still sparkling? Jewelry brands Retail Brew have been talking about the healthy sales expected from V-Day anyway, but the importance of the holidays has split down both physical and digital lines.
- Signet Jewelers President Jamie Singleton told us it was a critical selling period for mall-dependent brands Zales, Kay and Jared as shoppers were drawn to the more expensive items.
- Aurate co-founder Sophie Kahn called the party important but “not as important as other parties or events” of the DTC brand.
Behavior to watch out for: “90% of [Aurate] buyers are women and 80% buy for themselves, so Valentine’s Day isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, ”Kahn said. But other brands are courting autodidacts this season …
- Signet tried to appeal to one-on-one follies this year with a marketing campaign focusing on the “self-buying woman”.
- Kendra Scott, chief marketing officer, Mindy Perry, told Retail Brew that women made up more than 75% of in-store purchases from Feb. 1-11 in key markets.
For all customers, both Perry and Singleton said their emphasis is on in-store pickup services. In Texas, Kendra Scott stores are also partnering with local florists for bulk deliveries.
More digital sales = less adjustments. Aurate is seeing profitable growth this year without rewriting its formula. “In addition to going even more towards online shopping and customers who buy earlier in the year, we noticed very little difference compared to previous holiday seasons,” co-founder Bouchra Ezzahraoui told us.
