A one percent exists among jewelers — literally. That was the share of jewelers who reported earning more than $1 million in 2023. The mid-point among the respondents was more modest at around the six-figure mark, with just over half (53%) of jewelry store owners telling the 2024 INSTORE Big Survey they earned more than $100,000 in 2023. That’s up from 51% in 2022 and puts jewelers comfortably ahead of the average American, who reported an income of $56,316 that year.
Men continue to dominate at the upper end of the earnings scale, accounting for 73% of the jewelers earning more than $250,000 but the gender gap is closing – 51% of the women owners/managers reported earning more than 100K, compared to 55% of the men. Note that women accounted for 41% of the respondents in our survey.
The highest-earning store owners tended to operate in medium-sized cities, running large stores that offer a full range of services.
Overall, recent years have been good for jewelers with 61% now doing more than $1 million in sales per year. That is up from 39% in 2019 before the pandemic and up from 57% in 2022. Note that in 2022 and 2023 about 1% of the respondents said they lost money. At the other end of the scale, more 4.3% of the stores in our survey reported sales of more than $10 million.
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.