ACCORDING TO THE INSTORE 2021 Big Survey, 49 percent of jewelers earned $100,000 or more in 2020, with 12 percent of those earning more than $250,000.
That is up from 2019, when only around 35 percent of jewelers broke through six-figure earnings.
In another surprise INSTORE 2021 Big Survey result, sales improved for some 66 percent of jewelers during the lockdown year of the pandemic.
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Jewelers said that customer and staff loyalty, community resiliency and adaptation to new conditions had all contributed to better-than-expected business results, while others said that the pandemic had forced changes that happened to be good for business.
“We lost customers, we lost staff … [but] we gained new customers and improved our mindset regarding discounting (which we basically stopped) and a few other things which unified us and made us stronger,” said one respondent.
“Fewer store hours hasn’t hurt us,” said another jeweler.
The 2021 Big Survey was carried out between August and September, attracting more than 600 anonymous responses from owners of independent jewelry stores across the United States and Canada. The full results will be published in the upcoming November issue of INSTORE.