A survey conducted by on behalf of The Silver Institute’s Silver Promotion Service (SPS) revealed that the market for jewellery made in the white metal continued to be strong, with the boom extending to 2018, which marked the 10th straight year of growth.  Majority of retailers reporteddouble digit increases year-over-year with sales growth, high product turnover rates, the institute said. Needless to say, optimism was high for future growth.

“Younger consumers proved to be the key demographic with gifting and female self-purchase as the best selling opportunities,” the survey showed.

In the United States particularly, silver jewellery salesin 2018  performed exceedingly well  with 52% of jewellery retailers reporting increased sales the survey found. “The results also confirmed that silver jewellery continues to be a leading merchandise category for retailers, both in driving sales and providing margin,” SPS said.

The survey found that the average store growth in 2018 for silver jewellery sales stood at 16%. “Retailers said their silver jewellery sales, as a percentage of their overall jewellery sales, were on average 24% of their unit volume and 18% of their dollar volume,” the survey showed. SPS added that 51% said silver experienced “the best inventory turnover rate in 2018; 12% said diamond; 14% said bridal and 12% gold”.

The survey also revealed the “best maintained margins” during the Holiday Season which were:

• Silver Jewellery 40%
• Diamond Jewellery 23%
• Bridal Jewellery 17%
• Gold Jewellery 15%
• Platinum Jewellery 5%

An overwhelmingly large number -- 84% -- of retailers said “they are optimistic that silver jewellery sales will continue to grow”.

SPS Director Michael Barlerin commented, “The Silver Promotion Service is obviously gratified by what the survey demonstrated. We are also grateful that the optimism for silver’s ongoing performance remains so strong.”

The survey was conducted by INSTORE in February 2019. This was the tenth consecutive year that SPS has commissioned such a survey.

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