When the pandemic hit, the world’s total jewellery and luxury goods market showed a decline of 9.12% based on 2020 data. However, the total amount of China’s jewellery and luxury goods market bucked the trend and the total amount increased by 48%. Today, the Chinese market has accounted for 33% of the world market, and the second-ranked US market accounts for 22%. The total Chinese market has reached 790 billion yuan (approximately US$122 billion).
It can be seen from the data that the Chinese market has become an absolute hegemony. At the same time, there is a very intriguing set of data.
The per capita consumption of jewellery in the United States is three times that of the Chinese market. As China’s economy recovering from the pandemic, in the future, China’s per capita jewellery consumption still has a lot of room for increase. So, what are the characteristics of the Chinese jewellery market?
Gold
In the gold market, China has ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years. However, from 2018 to 2019, consumption dropped by 12.91%, reaching a total consumption of 240 billion yuan (about 37 billion U.S. dollars). From 2019 to 2020, consumption increased by 2%, reaching a total consumption of 244.8 billion yuan (approximately US$37.8 billion).
So what are the growths?
With the decline in the demand for the gold market, precious stones are showing rapid growth, such as diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds.
High-end market
There are no high-end brands that dominate the Chinese market. Among the high-end consumption, 81.9% are other brands, and the international high-end brands account for about 3%. It can be seen that the market is hugely predictable and complex. In the author’s opinion, these other brands have a better understanding of consumers’ actual application scenarios and highly personalized design needs.
The Chinese market is huge and complex. In the near future under the background of internationalization, there are many opportunities and challenges. The author has travelled through 245 cities in China. In different cities, the consumer groups and consumption characteristics have their unique aspects, and even the consumption characteristics of different regions in a city are very different. This complex feature is often exciting, indicating that it contains huge opportunities and challenges.
Contributed by Zhangpeng FGA (Fellowship of Gemological Association and Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain)
Zhangpeng, is a well-known jewelry operation expert and jewelry buyer in China, has a uniquely deep understanding and experience of operation, market, and procurement in China’s jewelry industry.
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