This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 3 in 2018. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
Though it is too soon to identify the market trend for 2018, we can imagine that unfurling the sails and taking advantage of this end of the year wind of positivity, the navigation during the first semester of 2018 can be smooth. Stable prices and a high demand of raw materials make us continue to hope for the good, also thanks to a 7% production increase of cut items, 148 million carats in 2017. Also the dollar trend, weakened when compared to Euro in the final part of 2017 envisages a slight decrease of prices that could favour the Retail market in the EU area.
+53% and +27% when compared to 2015. These De Beers and Alrosa increases close the year with a restored peace of mind and a decrease in stock that, instead, strengthened at the intermediate levels of distribution.
Also the marketing survey has some surprises in store. Over the last few years we were presented the profile of Millennials and the market is slowly becoming familiar with these young consumers, much more web oriented. Their parents, the baby boomers, prove more loyal to traditional retail in stores and to the personal relationship. However the novelty concerns women (mainly married, aged about 35 with a medium/high income) who purchase diamonds to gratify themselves thanks to their increased purchasing power. They are emerging buyers that will probably prove more responsive than Millennials to emotional values in jewellery.
In 2017 Tiffany chose a super pop star like Lady Gaga. An ambassador for a young public. We hope that others will follow this path as the time has come to modernize a bit the communication linking one’s own image to new idols. Gossip? Why not. It can prove an excellent marketing tool, too. Just see the theatrical gesture of the Italian rapper Fedez that, during a TV live concert, proposed to his future wife giving her a jewel. We should ask ourselves: will young people speak about a diamond connected to a rapper or about the jewel that the wife of a hereditary prince will wear for the royal wedding?
And what about the web? Year after year it confirms as the favourite tool for the trade of diamonds in the B2B sector, while things are different when B2C is concerned: the consumer still prefers a more traditional and comfortable contact to buy valuables. Even though the online sales of luxury goods still account for a small percentage when compared to the total ones, 60% of sales of international brands is made following the ROPO trend (Research Online, Purchase Offline).
By Sergio Sorrentino, published on Rivista Italiana di Gemmologia – Italian Gemological Review #3, January 2018.
