Will 2024, the second half of the year, be a watershed moment for the gold jewelry industry?
In 2024, as the gold price continued to rise, the domestic gold retail price also continued to rise, and the retail price of many brands of gold jewelry has exceeded 700 yuan per gram. As the gold price continues to fluctuate, gold jewelry, as a non-essential item in life, has gradually changed from valuing the investment attributes of gold and actively choosing to hoard gold jewelry to a wait-and-see attitude.
Consumers' willingness to buy is suppressed, purchases are postponed and budgets are reduced... The group of gold jewelry consumers has dropped significantly. Even the truly constant group of buyers with rigid demand - consumers who buy the "three golds" for marriage and engagement purposes - is decreasing due to changes in concepts about marriage and childbearing.
On the industrial side, there is a suspicion that the industry scale will peak in 2023, and the sharp decline in 2024 will be more drastic than expected. 2024 is a difficult year for the jewelry industry, and jewelry companies are facing unprecedented challenges.
In this context, companies may implement innovative management and technological innovation internally, or expand new markets to resist external risks with flexibility and adaptability, or integrate omni-channel marketing through product structure adjustment and optimization.
01
Social media breaks down information barriers
White label jewelry is on the right track
The emergence of e-commerce platforms has greatly influenced the consumption habits of domestic users. New e-commerce channels and social media have provided opportunities for countless small and medium-sized brands, jewelry designers, and even individuals to participate in the competition, thus triggering fierce market competition.
With the popularity of online shopping, consumers have enjoyed unprecedented convenience, and the cost of searching and comparing products has been greatly reduced. The rise of social media has further broken the monopoly of traditional media, providing consumers with channels to access diversified brand information and creating a soil for diversified cognition.
As the penetration rate of e-commerce continues to increase, consumption will gradually tend to be price-driven, that is, price will gradually become the most core consumption driving force for users.
As for general goods with almost no technical research and development barriers, their designs and craftsmanship will soon be homogenized by competing products. The sellers’ eagerness to cash out has further led to more intense market price competition.
Brands try to build a unique brand image in the minds of consumers by accumulating user recognition, in order to gain the ability to set their own prices. White-label products give up the right to set their own prices, and instead compete with similar products for more sales opportunities.
As information gaps decrease, consumers gradually remove the halo filter of brands. It is increasingly difficult to gain consumers' lasting following and loyalty by relying solely on a brand symbol or a logo. With product homogeneity, consumers are increasingly inclined to choose white-label jewelry with high cost-effectiveness.
With the help of large-scale publicity on social media, Shuibei Market has become well-known across the country for its rich merchants and cost-effective products, attracting a large number of consumers to come from far and wide to buy gold.
02
Traffic prefers metaphysical jewelry online marketing and is the first to taste the sweetness
As economic uncertainty and social pressure increase, people are more eager to seek psychological comfort and emotional catharsis in some way. From opening blind boxes to various metaphysics, "when in doubt, use divination and metaphysics" has become a true portrayal of the lives of contemporary young people.
In the past year, there have been over 30 million posts on Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu discussing metaphysical topics, with nearly 6 billion people participating in the interaction. These topics range from Western divination such as constellations and tarot cards to traditional Chinese numerology such as Zhouyi and Ziwei Bazi.
Some jewelry companies have keenly captured this social and psychological demand and incorporated metaphysical elements into product design and marketing strategies.
In the past, Van Cleef & Arpels, Queen Elizabeth II, Swarovski, Dior, Tiffany and other international brands have practiced metaphysical marketing, and then the golden butterfly metaphysics has boosted the sales of related accessories. According to statistics, in the first quarter of 2024, gold jewelry with butterfly elements sold 200 million yuan on Taobao, with sales increasing by 45.4% year-on-year, outperforming the overall market growth of gold jewelry.
03
The best-selling braided rope design jewelry has people scrambling to get in
As consumption downgrades have led to changes in residents' consumption structure, consumers are more inclined to buy jewelry products with small weights. At present, jewelry companies use small-weight gold ornaments and braided rope designs to make jewelry more affordable.
Currently, the market is popular with 0.1-0.5 gram micro-hard gold products, which are sold with braided ropes in different traditional colors. This personalized DIY method has quickly won the favor of young consumers.
In addition, Generation Z, the main force of the national trend, likes to wear jewelry that combines Chinese elements with trendy elements to express their unique aesthetic.
Many jewelry merchants use the national trend as the theme of rope design, and use traditional cultural elements such as the stars, prayer wheels, the twelve zodiac signs, the twelve flower gods and other traditional cultural elements as design inspiration. They match ropes with different traditional colors, combine ancient rope knotting techniques with modern aesthetics, and create a variety of gold jewelry full of blessings and meanings, innovatively interpreting the new national trend.
2023 is the year of the pearl market explosion, with sales increasing significantly, especially among young people who have become the core consumer group. At present, many businesses also weave pearls into bracelets to enrich the styles.
04
Breaking through the homogeneous stock competition, the enamel craft color matching is frequently updated
At present, the demand for high-end jewelry has also dropped significantly, and consumers have turned to light luxury jewelry or artificial gemstones. In recent years, low-grade jadeite has accounted for more than 30% of jadeite products, and crystal, low-grade tourmaline, topaz, morganite, garnet, lapis lazuli, red nan, amber, and beeswax have long become the best-selling products on the platform.
At present, some jewelry companies have developed enamel that can "impersonate gemstones". By using enamel to imitate colored gemstones such as ruby, sapphire, opal, tourmaline, aquamarine, crystal, emerald, etc., they can provide consumers with cheaper and more diverse shopping options.
In complement to this, novel raw materials and avant-garde design styles are aimed at the mid-range and larger incremental customer groups, and through unique service experience, they have also become a key measure for many brands to increase profits and reduce uncontrollable risks brought about by cost fluctuations.
Zhou Dasheng has recently taken the lead in launching the "fluorescent enamel" process. Based on the purely hand-painted jelly enamel, it adds environmentally friendly light-storage luminous materials to the enamel pigment. After the raw materials absorb and store light energy, they show a charming fluorescent effect under the illumination of specific light sources.
In terms of jewelry color matching, due to young people's preference for dopamine color matching, many companies currently use fresh dopamine color matching on enamel glazes.
It is undeniable that the entire gold jewelry industry and the hard luxury market are inevitably affected by the drastic fluctuations in gold prices. In a market where risks and opportunities coexist, the key to turning risks into opportunities is, of course, to re-examine consumer needs - to meet their needs and provide them with the creative designs, original technologies and high-quality services they truly desire.
Watch the clouds rise in the sky and wait for the wind to return. At present, some jewelry companies are deeply understanding the aesthetics and preferences of young consumers through continuous innovation and practice, and are committed to creating products with unique charm and cultural characteristics, actively responding to market changes in a more diverse and innovative way.
More jewelry companies are also actively thinking, expanding their thinking, carrying out internal optimization and structural adjustments, and increasing their efforts in product research and development, so as to meet future challenges and opportunities with a more determined and innovative attitude.