Performance Buying & Selling You, the Jeweler The Basics Operations Advertising and Marketing Management The good news: Most of our readers are thriving, with two out of three saying business has never been better. And it’s not just financially — a significant majority of the respondents, all owners or managers, said they are feeling good about all aspects of their life. In the 2024 Big Survey, we sought to identify what these jewelers, who we called “Thrivers”, are doing right as well as the areas where their “Struggler” counterparts are underperforming. The results reveal a mix of the to-be expected — yes, bridal is still central to running a profitable jewelry business in the U.S. — as well as the surprising: A lot of shop-based jewelers are feeling the pressure owing to staffing and other issues. The differences between our Thrivers and Strugglers in many areas were often quite small. But together they add up. And it’s hard to escape the conclusion that when business is going well, the rest of life tends to go well, too. ABOUT THE SURVEY The 2024 Big survey was conducted between August and September via an online service, SurveyMonkey. With more than 770 readers responding, it represents one of the biggest analyses of the lives and business habits of American jewelers. Thanks to everyone who took the time to fill in the survey. If you would like to participate in more INSTORE surveys, sign up for the Brain Squad at instoremag.com/brainsquad. 53% of jewelry store owners took home more than $100,000 in 2023. That’s up from 33% in 2019, before the pandemic struck. Gold buying and trading has provided a nice but modest bump in profit for most jewelers. Almost half of our survey-takers estimated the share of profit at less than 10%. Facebook ranks top for social media marketing, while direct mail was No. 1 for traditional advertising channels. 10 Things That Set Thrivers Apart They achieve a GMROI above $1.00 Generate a gross profit margin of at least 50% Are increasing their average bridal sale Sell to people with money Are active in offering exclusive goods to their marketplace Take at least two weeks of vacation a year Invest in their staff’s skills Pay commission Get 5-star reviews Offer full returns 10 Things That Set strugglers Apart Achieve a GMROI of less than 65 cents Generate a gross profit margin of less than 50% Are seeing their average bridal sale shrink Rely on their custom design skills to provide exclusivity Take less than 10 days off a year View their work as art Don’t invest in their staff’s skills Don’t pay commission Get 4.5-star Google reviews or less Offer exchange for in-store credit Men continue to dominate at the upper end of the earnings scale, accounting for 73% of the jewelers taking home more than $250,000. But overall, the gender gap is closing: 51% of the women owners reported earning more than $100K, compared to 55% of the men. Overall, women accounted for 41% of the survey respondents. *This was the key question we used to determine our Thrivers from our Strugglers. While it does not set a hard criteria for what constitutes “best” or “worst,” we felt it would provide respondents the space they need to identify their situation accurately while overlooking blips in performance caused by events such as the COVID outbreak. Note that when we last asked a similar question in 2018, before the pandemic, 38% of the respondents reported “best”, 17% said “worst”, and 43% said they were “no different”. The happy conclusion: A lot more jewelers are thriving in 2024.
