Black Friday may have set a record for in-store traffic, and jewelry was a big beneficiary, with three separate surveys saying the category logged strong gains over last year.
RetailNext, which provides data on store visits, reported that foot traffic in jewelry stores increased 6.7% on Black Friday and 2.6% on Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, compared with 2022. That made jewelry the second best performing sector tracked by the service, behind health and beauty (which enjoyed increases of 13.3% on Black Friday and 9% the day after), and surpassed the overall Black Friday jump in store traffic of 1.6%.
“The increase in U.S. store traffic over Black Friday weekend is a positive development considering recent trends and is on the higher end of our expectations,” Joe Shasteen, global manager of advanced analytics for RetailNext, said in a statement. “This is a good sign for retail in the holiday period.”
Another retail survey, Mastercard SpendingPulse, reported that “jewelry and apparel topped gift lists” on Black Friday, without getting more specific. It estimated that retail sales on Black Friday rose 2.5% over the last year, with e-commerce sales rising 8.5%.
According to Adobe Analytics, online jewelry sales soared 113% during Thanksgiving weekend over a typical day in October. Other categories notched even greater increases, including electronics (up 156%), apparel (136%), and toys (132%).
Consumers spent a total of $9.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 7.5% improvement from last year, Adobe said.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported that 200.4 million consumers shopped over the five-day holiday weekend from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday—a new record. The numbers topped the trade group’s initial traffic estimates by nearly 10%. The NRF didn’t break out numbers for jewelry specifically, but said that 49% of shoppers purchased clothing and accessories.
(Photo: Getty Images)
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