Retail Edge Consultants has issued its June report, revealing “another very strong result” which marks more than a year of consecutive months of “solid double-digit growth”.
A comparison of overall sales dollars recorded a significant increase – 15 per cent – over June 2020.
More importantly, it was a 17 per cent rise compared with June 2019, pre-COVID.
The report noted that the results were driven by an increase in the average inventory sale price – that is, sales excluding repairs – of 17 per cent compared with June 2020, though the number of units sold fell by 10 per cent.
Michael Dyer, sales manager at Retail Edge, posited that this could reflect a wider consumer trend toward purchasing more ‘lasting’ products due to the pandemic – preferring something enduring, and therefore better value, over cheaper, transient products.
Further analysis of the ‘sales dollar’ data compared to June 2020 revealed:
- Diamond-set precious metal jewellery achieved a 35 per cent increase
- Colour gemstone-set precious metal jewellery was strong with 24 per cent
- Precious metal jewellery without gemstones or diamonds increased 22 per cent
- Silver and alternative metal jewellery also rose 22 per cent
In addition, “special orders” (custom-made jewellery) was on the increase with more new orders than completed orders.
“So that means some positive cashflow in the month ahead, as well as customer visitations to collect the orders,” Dyer explained.
He added some advice for retailers: “The start of a new financial year is an ideal time to generate a Comparative Department report to see if there is a shift in the type of product category that customers see as your business’s strong point.
“Retailers who don’t familiarise themselves with that, and adjust their buying and marketing, could risk drifting away from the main growth path. Retailers should ask, is there too much capital tied up in a product category that is losing consumer relevance?”
The latest June data reflects a positive trend as show in the in April and March data. Sales in dollars for April 2021 increased 252 per cent compared with the same period last year and 40 per cent when compared with April 2019; while the March 2021 results were 63 per cent higher than the same month in 2020 and 37 per cent higher than in 2019.
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