Luxury jewelry spending increased 3 percent, year-over-year, in the third quarter of 2010, according to American Express Business Insights. The average transaction size for luxury jewelry purchases increased 6 percent while transaction volume for the category fell by 3 percent.
These are much lower numbers than what was reported by the Spend Sights Report—Luxury Retail survey for the prior two quarters. For example, spending on luxury jewelry increased by 18 percent in March and 17 percent in April, while increases for the last four consecutive months was below 6 percent—including no increase at all in September.
Males were responsible for 71 percent of consumer luxury jewelry purchases and consumers over 46 years of age were responsible 54 percent of total jewelry spending—according to the report, which tracks furniture and home furnishings, apparel and accessories, jewelry and department stores.
Shoppers under the age of 35 made up 25 percent of total luxury jewelry customers in the third quarter, slightly higher than the year prior at 21 percent.
Overall, the luxury retail sector continued to show improvement as consumer confidence slowly restores, the report states.
According to the report, furniture and home furnishings posted the most significant year-over-year gains of the third quarter with a 13 percent increase, with department stores were not far behind at 10 percent. Overall spending for apparel and accessories for the period rose by 5 percent.
Individual consumer spending was up across all luxury retail sectors and showed an increase of 12 percent in furniture & home furnishings. Small and large businesses, however, continued to hold back and decreased spending in this category by 2 percent and 7 percent, respectively.