Consumer Jewelry Preferences Revealed by New Research

The Plumb Club Research Helps Retailers Understand What Consumers Want

New York – Just in time for the summer buying shows, The Plumb Club is introducing research findings that will help retailers make informed purchasing decisions. This part of the multi-focused research went directly to consumers to ask their jewelry preferences across a variety of style and category.

  • To a great extent, consumers agree (67%) that, when they wear jewelry, they wish to wear pieces that express their personality and mood. 64% of consumers say that symbols used in jewelry have (or to some extent have) the power to convey emotion or to protect.
  • When it comes to expressing a consumer’s personality 44% of consumers prefer traditional or classic styling, 20% prefer a minimalistic approach, while 14% prefer contemporary and 12% vintage. Trendy or fun styling preferences came in at 9%.
  • Overwhelmingly, 78% of consumers say that colorful jewelry lifts their mood, and they define colorful jewelry as jewelry that contains one color of brightly-colored gemstones (43%) or jewelry with a mix of many-colored gemstones (42%).
  • When purchasing color gemstone jewelry, 41% of consumers prefer a somewhat neutral color palette that might work for more outfits, while 31% want a brighter color palette of gems. Multi-color and pastel preferences were split, each at 14%.
  • Consumers purchasing pearls prefer white pearls (53%) over color pearls (24%) and generally prefer their pearls in a classic strand styling (52%). 37% of consumers say that when they buy pearls, they like more modern styling.
  • For watches, 70% of consumers say that they define their watch style as classic and 24% define their style as vintage. While 55% say they prefer to buy watches with an automatic movement, 42% prefer a classic wind. 37% say they want battery operated movements and 16% like watches with complications.

The research was conducted with a sampling of 1,049 men and women, from the ages of 25-60 with a focus on 10 “test markets” across the US. Respondents had all attended some college or higher, had a combined household income of at least $75K/year and claimed to have either purchased jewelry in the past year and/or were intending to purchase jewelry in the upcoming year. The expansive research, entitled The Plumb Club Industry and Market Insights 2021 was initiated by The Plumb Club, a coalition of 45 best-in-class suppliers to the jewelry and watch industry, with the help of Paola Deluca, The Futurist and survey firm, Qualtrics.

Additional information from this expansive research will be made available in the coming weeks.

Retailers wishing more information on The Plumb Club Industry and Market Insights 2021 should contact a Plumb Club Member.   For a full list of The Plumb Club Members, visit https://plumbclub.com/members/ or email info@plumbclub.com

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