Study: Women buy themselves jewelry, but at nontraditional stores
July 01, 2007


Beth Braverman

Paso Robles, Calif.—Women continue to buy jewelry for themselves, but they often do so at places other than traditional jewelry stores, a new Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council (JCOC) study finds.
The study also says women don’t need a reason or occasion to buy for themselves.
“It’s something I have definitely seen in my store,” Ron Traxler, owner of Jordan’s Jewelry in Addison, Texas, says of the trend. “We often encounter female professionals or mature women who buy jewelry for themselves. Lately, they are even more willing to make bigger purchases.”
Chain stores remained the most popular place among women buying jewelry for themselves, followed by independent fine jewelry stores, according to the JCOC study. Sixty percent of women, however, buy jewelry at places other than traditional jewelry stores, and the percentage of women buying jewelry online, at department stores and at mass retailers has increased since the last JCOC self-purchasing study in 2005.
Although women have worked alongside men for decades, they are just starting to flex their greater purchasing power, Traxler says.
“Women didn’t feel empowered to make choices themselves until the late ’90s,” he says. “In the last few years, they have been much more vocal about what they want and what they deserve. They’ll say ‘I want this and if he won’t buy it for me, I’ll buy it for myself.’”
Women regularly spend $1,000 or more on the custom pieces that Jordan’s Jewelry specializes in, Traxler adds.
More than two-thirds of the 2,476 women surveyed reported that they had bought jewelry for themselves in the past, and 16 percent planned to do so within the next six months. Some 78 percent said they buy jewelry whenever they see something they like, and more than half said they buy it while shopping for others or to celebrate birthdays or accomplishments.
At Leighton’s Jewelers of Madera in Madera, Calif., storeowner Chris Miller says he has not seen any rise in the number of female self-purchasers, but they remain a key part of his business, especially for sales of less than $1,000.
About half the customers at Herman Hiss & Co., in Bay City, Mich., are women who are likely to buy fashion jewelry or charms but unlikely to pay for diamond rings, says storeowner Tom Tabor. Nj

Reference:National Jeweler