The past decade witnessed the global gem and jewelry industry undergoing some significant changes and registering strong growth, on account of increasing income as well as demand from the emerging economies across the world. Among the various types of jewelry, plain diamond jewelry accounts for the largest share of the global jewelry market, followed by plain gold jewelry. Diamond, gold and platinum are the three main product segments, which collectively account for approximately 95% of the global retail jewelry sales in value terms.
Diamonds, as the major natural resource in the world, are used in both jewelry and industrial applications. There has been a significant growth in the demand for diamond-studded jewelry due to the improving economy in the key diamond jewelry consuming countries and the vigorous marketing efforts of diamond companies. The major changes witnessed by the diamond industry in the recent years include rising demand for synthetic diamonds, as well as significant developments in the entire value chain process like consolidation, re-structuring of diamond processing, local benefaction, among others.
Traditionally, gold has held the leading position in most of the jewelry markets worldwide because of the value and tradability factor associated with it. Though the total consumption of plain gold jewelry decreased in volume terms, the overall sales of gold recorded gain in value terms. In the meantime, the demand for platinum jewelry has also increased in the recent past, not only in the developed markets of the US and Europe, but also in the emerging markets like China and India, due to the ‘elite’ tag and ‘high-end’ value attached to the metal.
A geographic segmentation shows the US as the largest consumer for gems and jewelry, followed by China/ India, the Middle East and Japan. In the European region, the UK and Italy are the largest consumers, with the former also being one of the world’s largest jewelry fabrication centers. The emerging markets, like China, India that are traditional jewelry centers of consumption, are showing signs of becoming the largest consumption markets by 2015, for both traditional as well as branded jewelry. The growth in the demand for gems and jewelry is attributed to the burgeoning middle and rich-class as well as the improving living standards. Nevertheless, the industry continues to face problems due to competition from other luxury goods, as well as socio-ethical issues.
On the whole, the report analyzes the trends and challenges of the gem and jewelry and also outlines the opportunities driving the present as well as future industry growth. The report focuses on the retail jewelry sales, trends, jewelry segments future potential of the four large consumers of jewelry – the US, China, India and the UK. It also discusses the sales, demand, outlook of the three major segments of the jewelry industry, i.e. platinum, gold and diamond. Further, the report analyzes the major gems and jewelry companies (retail) – Gitanjali Gems Limited, Signet Jewelers Limited and Tsutsumi.