Signet Sees “Strong” Black Friday, But “Slower” Engagement Recovery Than Expected

By Rob Bates | December 05, 2024

Signet saw “strong” sales over Black Friday, though its much-touted “engagement recovery” is happening slower than expected, the company’s chief financial, strategy, and services officer Joan Hilson tells JCK in an interview following the release of its third-quarter financial results.

The company saw a “high single-digit” increase in sales over Black Friday weekend, which is one reason it’s forecasting comps will turn positive over the holiday, Hilson says. And while the anticipated post-COVID boom in popping-the-question is lagging behind projections, it’s still happening, she says.

“[The] engagement recovery [is] underway,” she told analysts on a post-results conference call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “We believe that we’ll continue to see that recovery, although it may be a bit extended from our earlier view on that.”

Overall, Signet’s comp sales fell 0.7% during the third quarter (ended Nov. 2) from the prior year—an improvement from the second quarter, when they fell 3.4%. Total sales came in at $1.3 billion, down 3.1% from the same period last year.

Hilson says the recent comp decline stemmed mostly from issues at digital banners James Allen and Blue Nile. Excluding those digital banners, comps for the quarter would have risen 1 percentage point, she says.

The two sites have moved to a shared platform and changed their internal search, affecting both their traffic and SEO rankings, as well as the customer experience.

“It will take time…until we get the search perfected, and the algorithms fine-tuned, to where they [need] to be,” she says.

In October, Signet appointed Corinne Bentzen as president of its digital banners.

Signet also reported that its average transaction value for bridal products has fallen—but said that wasn’t caused by lab-grown bridal, which currently has a higher average transaction value than bridal with natural diamonds.

“We see costs [of] lab-grown diamonds coming down faster than the retail is coming down,” Hilson said on the conference call. “So the way that we’ve bridged that in our strategy…is we are providing design, branded product within bridal, and with the introduction of more fashion.”

Signet has seen over 30% growth in lab-created diamond fashion sales over the last year, Hilson says.

And she told analysts that Signet has not been affected by the dramatic rise in the gold price.

“We see little price resistance within our business on gold,” she said on the call. “The consumer understands the value and how gold is priced in the market. So as we see prices or costs in gold rise, we are able to adjust our pricing and/or value engineer product to keep pricing within the consumer sweet spot.”

This was Signet’s first conference call in seven years without Gina Drosos, who stepped down as CEO on Nov. 4.

J.K. Symancyk, who became Signet CEO last month, spoke briefly on the call, thanking the Signet team for its “warm welcome.”

Hilson says the executive team is working with Symancyk “to identify opportunities to pull together our new strategic plan. But importantly, we see this as an evolution we’re building this on a strong foundation. We are looking forward to working with him as a career merchant. He can bring forward new thinking for us. We look forward to sharing [our new strategy] in March [2025].”

(Photo courtesy of Signet Jewelers)