Christmas
Christmas is the most crucial trading period for the UK jewellery industry, driving significant sales across retail, wholesale, and e-commerce. For jewellers, manufacturers, and suppliers, understanding seasonal trends, consumer behaviour, and effective marketing strategies is essential to maximising opportunities during the festive period. Jewellery Focus provides extensive coverage on Christmas trading, including sales performance analysis, product trends, promotional campaigns, and insights into supply chain readiness. Our reporting helps trade professionals prepare for and capitalise on the busiest season of the year.
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Feb- 2020 -5 FebruaryAnalysis
Tesla, Macy’s and organic food: serious change is afoot
Sometimes change is sudden and surprising, but sometimes it bubbles away under the surface for decades before making a serious impact, and in today’s roundup I have a few examples of the latter to highlight. First, there is Tesla. The firm led by billionaire space-AI Elon Musk has long been…
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Jan- 2020 -31 JanuaryAnalysis
The whole Amazon thing is getting scary now
The ‘growth of online retail’ is now so proverbial that the phrase itself is nearly redundant. Is anyone surprised to learn this morning that Amazon has absolutely rampaged through the Christmas retail season, while scores of well-known bricks-and-mortar retailers reported a torrid set of financial results for the same period?…
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17 JanuaryInternational
Signet Jewellers performance ‘falls short’ over Christmas
Signet Jewellers, the parent company of H. Samuel and Ernest Jones, has reported a dip in like-for-like sales over the Christmas period. Its UK division saw like-for-like sales slide by 3.1%, which reflected a “difficult operating environment in the UK”. Whilst e-commerce sales grew by 15.8%, brick and mortar sales…
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15 JanuaryAnalysis
Boohoo more valuable than M&S – a sea-change encapsulated
From a purely journalistic standpoint it is now a de facto cliché to refer to Marks and Spencer as the “high street bellwether”, yet that is the status it has held for so many decades. The once mighty monolith was the first British retailer to reach a market capitalisation of…
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10 JanuaryEconomy
‘Worst year on record’ for retail, says BRC
Total retail sales decreased by 0.1% in 2019, compared with the 1.2% increase recorded in 2018, making it the “worst year on record” for retail according to the BRC. Helen Dickinson, CEO of the BRC, said this was reflected in the CVAs, shop closures and job losses that the industry…
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10 JanuaryBusiness Bites
Spooked markets seem soothed by Iran-US climb-down
When Iran decided to hit back on US military facilities after president Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, there was talk of the outbreak of war. NATO countries apparently implored Trump not to go for another attack, fearing that if he did things would escalate beyond control…
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9 JanuaryAnalysis
Who would have thought skinny jeans could be anyone’s undoing?
It’s not often that the business pages give you a good belly laugh. But today we have the spectacle of Marks & Spencer blaming its poor Christmas trading results partly on an oversupply of skinny jeans for men. Apparently customer surveys revealed that the high street bellwether’s ranges were “too…
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3 JanuaryRetailers
Boxing Day footfall falls to lowest level since 2010
Retail footfall decreased by 10.6% on Boxing Day in 2019, and marks the largest decrease in footfall since 2010. The research from Springboard found the decline to be larger than the last two years combined for the period. In 2018 footfall was 4.2% lower than in 2017 and in 2017…
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Dec- 2019 -17 DecemberRetailers
Local jewellers more influential than celebrities, reveals survey
The local jeweller is more influential than celebrities when it comes to jewellery purchases, according to a recent survey conducted by NAJ. The survey, carried out on over 2,500 UK consumers, revealed that only 8% of respondents said that celebrities influenced their jewellery purchases. Meanwhile, 61% of consumers said that…
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16 DecemberCurrent Affairs
1/3 of Brits would gift second-hand jewellery for Christmas, survey reveals
Some 43% of Brits would “gladly” give a pre-owned gift for Christmas, according to a study by experts in pre-owned luxury jewellers, William May. The study found that one in eight of the 3,000 Brits surveyed admitted they get more satisfaction from purchasing second-hand items than brand new. The survey…
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