Jewellery high on Christmas wish lists

Posted December 14, 2010 | By Sonia Nair

Jewellery will be a popular Christmas gift on consumers’ wish lists this year, a new survey has found.

Some 38 per cent of those polled for the Australian Retailers Association’s (ARA) annual Consumer Christmas Survey 2010 plan to buy jewellery as gifts.

In fact, the number of people intending to splash out on more “traditional” gifts has risen to 82 per cent this year, and 46 per cent of those looking for traditional gifts want jewellery.

The upswing for traditional gifts comes despite consumers’ increasing affinity for electronic gifts. Although demand for jewellery remains strong, the number of shoppers wanting to buy jewellery has declined by 1.5 per cent compared with last year.

ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said shoppers who were buying electronic gifts had increased 46 per cent from last year.

“Overall the popularity of electronic gifts has risen this year with almost 52 per cent of shoppers planning on trawling the technology aisles for gifts this Christmas,” Zimmerman said.

He said it was an indication of the times that almost 20 per cent of Christmas shoppers are planning to buy iPads and over 30 per cent would buy MP3 players and iPods.

Zimmerman attributed the increased popularity of traditional gifts to a desire among adult shoppers to create memories.

“When it comes to the grown-ups, it seems there is more interest in creating memories than collecting things, with 32 per cent of shoppers planning on purchasing vouchers for experiences including hot air balloon rides, sky diving and day spas,” Zimmerman said.

More reading:
Jewellers braced for mixed Christmas trading