Buying jewelry online is no longer an exception. Yet buying in a traditional shop is still the preferred choice of the vast majority of people, at least in many countries, including Italy. A photograph of the trends and habits of those who buy jewelery comes from a survey by the Federpreziosi Observatory (association of distribution companies) on a representative sample of Italian consumers with 700 interviews with people over the age of 24.
Even if online jewelry shopping is not widespread in Italy, the number of shops that sell precious items is decreasing. There are 13,296 companies in the retail trade of watches, jewelery and silverware, but from 2013 to 2021 they closed around 4,000 jewelery shops. The sales of all these companies are estimated at almost 5 billion euros, of which over 40% are concentrated in the North West regions. Turnover is growing compared to 2020 but has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels. 33,890 people work in jewelers in Italy. Large companies are 0.1% of Italian jewelers and invoice 21.3% of the total.
Habits
In Italy, and not only there, on the occasion of anniversaries the choice often falls on the purchase of jewels and valuables. The main reasons for buying a jewel are the awareness of the desire of the person to whom one intends to give it (53.8%) and the pleasure of wearing jewels (42.9%). Interestingly, 94.7% of those who have not avoided buying a jewel have done so mainly due to the excessive cost of jewels (50.4%), but also because they consider the jewel a personal product and therefore difficult to give away (20.4%). The purchases of valuables and jewels are concentrated for men aged between 45 and 54, often residing in large cities. 13.4% of those interviewed bought a jewel for themselves.
Offline
91.8% of Italian consumers buy in a physical store and only 8.2% online. 60.5% of those who bought a jewel had a precise idea before going to the shop, while almost 40% knew they wanted to buy a jewel, but did not have a precise idea of what to buy and sought advice from the jeweler. The jeweler’s experience was used for 45% of the jewels sold, in compensation in about 55% of the cases the advice of friends and acquaintances, product advertising in newspapers and TV and communication on the web played a role. Sponsored contents on the web (66.4%) are among the reasons that determined the choice of the jewel.
