After two challenging years of decline, independent jewelry retailers scored solid revenue growth in 2010 with the year picking up most strongly during the holiday season, according to National Jeweler’s exclusive 2010 Year-End Survey.

Of the 313 retailers who took the survey—mainly single-store independents with operations spread evenly across the country—65 percent reported positive same-store sales growth for 2010 as a whole, up from only 39 percent who were able to claim such success in 2009. Nearly four out of 10 jewelers posted double-digit growth for the year, with half of those realizing annual sales growth of 20 percent or better.

Sales growth for the holidays in specific was even better, with nearly half of respondents reporting double-digit year-over-year growth for November through December. A full 25 percent of all jewelers said they posted growth of 20 percent or better for the holidays.

Roper’s Jewelers, with two stores in Auburn, Calif., is with the majority in reporting positive sales momentum during the holiday season, said store manager Peggy Seitzinger. She acknowledges that 2009 wasn’t a difficult year to top in terms of November and December sales, but the store recognized this. They designed their sales goal to meet and then exceed the sales levels of the 2009 holiday season.

“The goal wasn’t just to do better than last year,” she said. “We certainly built that growth into that.”

Though it’s still very early in 2011, it appears that 2010’s positive momentum is carrying over into the new year, retailers interviewed by National Jeweler said.

“We’re still busy,” Mark Geller, chief executive officer of Laura M. Jewelry in Los Angeles, said in late January. “This is the first time in two years we’ve been slammed the two weeks after the holidays. There’s a lot of pent-up demand.”

Geller, who said his holiday sales skyrocketed 70 percent over last year and were up 20 percent on the year, said he received more special orders this month than he has in five years. He notes, however, that it’s the higher-income consumers who have returned to shopping at his two Los Angeles stores. Sales in the $1,000 to $3,000 range remain absent.

Price points also bumped up for this year’s holiday season, though the increase in average ticket price was smaller than the growth rate posted by sales overall. Nearly a half of the jewelers that responded reported that their average price points increased, while about a third posted said average ticket decreased.

“It’s still people with money. It’s the $5,000 purchase and up. A lot of people are stuck paying down debt,” Geller said of the middle segment of the market. “I don’t see that recovering until at least the end of this year, or early 2012. Until the middle class get their debt paid down and get more comfortable, we’re not going to see that money.”

CAUTIOUS CONSUMERS While a slate of positive developments seem to be causing shoppers to return to the stores—an improved economy, a perception that conditions are better and even, perhaps, a pent-up need to shop—jewelers agree that consumers are remaining cautious.

Tracy Zeller, owner of Tracy Zeller Jewelry in Evansville, Ind., said the big-ticket holiday sales she registered didn’t come until the last few days before Christmas. She said she had the sense customers were holding out for potential markdowns and didn’t feel other shoppers would swoop in and scoop up that $10,000 tennis bracelet in the interim.

“The perception is people don’t get in a hurry to spend their money,” said Zeller, who said she realized revenue growth of 22 percent for the year overall. “I don’t think customers are worried about the big items they’re looking at being gone.”

Seitzinger and Jonathan Crary, of Jonathan’s Jewelers, also said customers were deliberate in their buying.

Crary said it was obvious shoppers at his Bedford, N.H. store, where sales were up 15 percent in 2010, took time to research any purchases they were considering and wanted to be educated on why a piece of jewelry costs what it does. “I think that people are more careful in their buying, and they’re becoming more educated consumers,” he said.

Seitzinger said at Roper’s Jewelers, more customers paid using debit cards, checks or cash than credit cards. And customers who had a budget were not easily persuaded into spending more than they intended.

“Everybody that had a budget really worked hard at sticking there,” she said.

For more on National Jeweler’s exclusive 2010 Year-End Survey, see today’s associated stories on hot products, the Internet effect, margins and jewelers’ 2011 outlook.

Source: www.nationaljeweler.com