At press time, the industry was in the midst of the Christmas selling season, and it was too early to get a full read on it. But there were some early indicators, mostly positive:

• MasterCard‘s SpendingPulse said jewelry sales were up 4.6 percent in November.

• The Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council said 22 percent of panelists purchased jewelry in the first days of the holiday season versus 14 percent last year.

• According to the National Retail Federation, 11.7 percent of shoppers bought jewelry or precious metal accessories on Black Friday versus 10.9 percent last year.

• Zale Corp. announced same store sales dropped 18.6 percent in November, a disappointing number.
  Blue Nile CEO Diane Irvine said her company had its “best Cyber Monday ever” as well as a strong Black Friday. And Coremetrics found that online jewelry retailers had a 14.3 percent jump in sales over last year’s Cyber Monday figures.