The Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) will account for half of the world’s new jewellery and watch sales in the next five years, according to independent market analyst firm, Datamonitor.
The company’s latest research report, Global Jewellery Retailing: Market Size, Retailer Strategies and Competitive Success, reveals that although many jewellery retailers have struggled in recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has survived the global economic crisis in good shape and will be the fastest growing region over the next five years.
The report says that jewellery and watch sales in the region, which currently account for 31.2 percent of global sales, will grow by $31.9bn to reach $106.1bn and make up around 50 percent of the market in the next five years.
Datamonitor analyst Ruta Perveneckaite says: “As wealth increases through the region and expectations of future prosperity build, the conventional inclination to save is declining and the younger generation of consumers, particularly based in China, India and South-East Asia is spending most of its income on consumer products, especially into jewellery and watches.
“For western watch and jewelry retailers, China’s increase presents an unrivalled opportunity to capitalise on continuing rapid economic growth and bring their brands to a newly affluent urban population.
“Factors such as female participation in the workforce and heightened brand awareness through extensive use of social media on the internet have further lifted the Chinese market”.
The Datamonitor report concludes that luxury jewellery and watch retailers have potential for growth in the Asia-Pacific through development in transactional websites.
“So far many brands are missing an opportunity by not launching into the online space,” says Perveneckaite.
“Consumers are now increasingly willing to buy big ticket items online so brands should change their strategy and take advantage of this”.