We’ve written in the past about how online shopping hasn’t killed brick and mortar retail stores just yet, and you could certainly argue that jewelry stores have been particularly insulated from the growing threat that online shopping poses to local retail. But is that actually the case? Are local jewelry stores doing big business during the holiday shopping season? Or has is it not as important as you’d expect?
Check out our state of local retail report for a deep dive into the biggest days of the year at all retail shops, which state’s retail shops earn the most revenue, and a whole lot more.
We analyzed transaction data at over 2,000 local jewelry stores across the country to find out how big an impact last-minute holiday shopping has on sales, what other times of the year move the needle, and a whole lot more.
How much do jewelry stores make on an average day?
We first started by analyzing what the average day looks like at local jewelry stores around the country.
The average jewelry store in our analysis brought in $1,089 in daily revenue on average throughout the year. Looking closer, we see they process on average about 6 transactions with an average ticket of $179.84.
Of course, this is only an average across a wide variety of jewelry stores, and a “typical day” can look quite different depending on the type of store and its location. For example, some of the jewelry stores in our analysis averaged over 25 transactions per day, while others averaged just a couple transactions per day.
Average ticket, as you might expect when you’re selling something like jewelry, varied even more greatly. Some of the jewelry stores in our analysis saw average ticket prices of over $1,000, while others were down in the $20 range.
What are the busiest days of the week for local jewelry stores?
Next we took a deeper look at the numbers by breaking down each day of the week at the average jewelry store in our analysis.
Here’s what we found:
40% of all revenue at jewelry stores came in on Fridays and Saturdays alone, establishing weekends as particularly huge for jewelry stores. Only 29% of jewelry stores in our analysis kept their doors open on Sundays, however, making it by far the slowest day of the week overall.
Diving deeper into the data, you can see that weekdays see jewelry shops processing much fewer transactions, on average, but at a slightly higher ticket price.
As the weekend hits, average transactions rise, peaking at 8 transactions per Saturday, with average ticket price dropping only slightly.A closer look at Sundays reveals that the 29% of jewelry stores who keep their doors appear to be slightly less upscale than the average store, as ticket price drops by $57 vs the weekly high (Wednesdays).
When are the biggest times of the year for jewelry stores?
Now that we’ve looked at the average day and week, let’s step back and take a look at the typical year at jewelry stores.
Jewelry stores experience their first big bump in sales around Valentine’s Day, then again during Mother’s Day. But both pale in comparison to the absolutely massive spike in sales that occur just before Christmas.
To put into perspective just how big the holiday shopping season is for jewelry stores, nearly 10% of annual revenue cam in during the two weeks before Christmas alone. But when, exactly, are people most likely to hit up a jewelry store for their holiday shopping needs? Let’s dive even deeper to find out.
What are the biggest days of the year for local jewelry stores?
Let’s first examine the top 5 days of the year by total consumer spending (aka, the days when the most total dollars were being spent at jewelry stores, nationwide):
When it comes to last-minute Christmas shopping, it seems you can’t go wrong with spending big money on fancy jewelry for that special someone. The top 5 days of the year were all in the days leading up to Christmas.
Last-minute shopping is so big, that the top two days of the year (the Saturday and Friday before Christmas) saw an astounding 399% and 350% increase in dollars spent at jewelry shops.
The “busiest” and “spendiest” days of the year at jewelry stores
Next, we wanted to see which were the days when Americans spent the most per-ticket, and which days were the busiest in terms of average foot traffic for local jewelry stores.
The top ticket day of the year was Christmas Eve, suggesting that desperate last-minute shoppers may be particularly willing to pay a premium. Again, though, the final week before Christmas saw huge increases in average ticket across the board.
The same goes for the busiest days of the year in terms of foot traffic, when the Saturday before Christmas was easily the busiest day of the year.
Where are jewelry stores the busiest during the holidays?
Finally, let’s take a look at which cities were home to the busiest (and “slowest”) jewelry stores in the country during the holiday shopping season. Let’s start with the weekend before Christmas:
The fellow Alabama cities of Anniston and Montgomery took home the prize as the home of the busiest jewelry shops, both averaging an astounding 700%+ increase in revenue over the weekend before Christmas.
Underscoring just how big this weekend is for jewelry shops, each of the top ten cities in our analysis averaged increases in revenue of well over 400%. And even most of the bottom ten cities all saw pretty significant increases as well. Only San Clemente, CA (41%), Milwaukee, WI (21%), and Austin, TX (11%) saw average increases under 50%.
But what about Christmas Eve? Let’s take a look at the cities where people did the most truly last-minute shopping at jewelry stores:
Stamford, CT jewelry stores had the biggest Christmas Eve in our analysis, with a whopping 718% increase in revenue. Provo, UT and York, PA were #2 and #3, both experiencing over 600% increases in revenue.
The slowest city on Christmas Eve? Honolulu, Hawaii — where jewelry stores likely experience more consistent seasonal revenue throughout the year.
How to get the most out of the busiest days of the year if you own or manage a jewelry store
Do you own your own local jewelry store? If so, is the last-minute Christmas shopping season as busy for you as it was in our findings? Or you do you feel like you struggle to bring in customers in spite of seasonal expectations?
As we just detailed, the holiday shopping season is all about increases in transactions, and especially in average ticket size. So it’s not just about drawing extra customers into your doors. It’s also about capitalizing on customers who are willing to spend a lot more than usual. Especially as you get closer and closer to Christmas.
Look for ways to cement your jewelry store as the place for your target customer demographic to get all their shopping done this holiday season. And if your store is already a hit during the holidays, think about how to take advantage of the increase in foot traffic to pay dividends later down the road.
Push for more reviews of your jewelry store, and entice customers to follow you on social media or provide their email address for future discounts and deals. That way you’ll be a step ahead of the game next year and beyond.
Check out a few of our helpful guides for jewelry store owners:
- How to get more reviews
- 25 free listing sites every small business should be on
- 25 free local business advertising ideas
- Impact of reviews on retail business revenue
Finally, check out how Womply’s reputation management software helps make all this easier while saving you time and money. Womply has helped businesses like yours increase revenue by 20%, see 22% more repeat customers, and save 10 hours of time per week. Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!