Our primary goal with the 2024 INSTORE Big Survey was to tease out what behaviors allowed some jewelers to outperform their peers. In the “KPI chart” below, we asked all the survey respondents to evaluate their performance against four benchmarks for gross profit margin, occupancy cost, advertising cost, and personnel costs.
Our benchmarks were based on previous industry “best practice” surveys of jewelers and our discussions with industry insiders and consultants. Jewelers will debate what is an appropriate benchmark for their particular operation. But what became clear with the results of the 2024 INSTORE Big Survey was that underperforming jewelers, or “Strugglers” as we dubbed them, lagged their “Thriving” counterparts in all areas. Few achieved a gross profit margin above 50%, while they paid more for their occupancy costs. They also invested less in advertising and in their staff. Moreover, the Strugglers were more likely to report they didn’t know these key statistics. As we’ve noted before in these surveys, it’s hard to improve if you can’t gauge your performance.
NOTE: The INSTORE 2024 Big Survey was conducted via an anonymous online form from mid-August to late September, attracting more than 700 responses from American jewelry-store owners and managers. The full results will be published in the November edition of INSTORE.
