It’s not the place that decorates the decoration – Newspaper Kommersant No. 184 (7385) of 05.10.

The jewelry market in Russia in the first half of 2022 slowed growth to 2% amid the economic crisis, a decrease in consumer activity and a reduction in the number of outlets. For the second half of the year, experts predict a decline in jewelry sales, noting that price growth in the market will be restrained, including due to the low exchange rate.

According to the results of January-June 2022, the volume of the jewelry market increased by only 2%, amounting to 152 billion rubles, according to Infoline. But separately, a number of large players showed slightly more positive dynamics – their total sales grew by 9%, to 64.4 billion rubles. In Infoline, the trend towards a slowdown in the development of the jewelry market is associated with an unstable situation in the economy, the suspension of the work of some foreign jewelry retailers and a general decline in household incomes.

The leaders in terms of sales among jewelry chains in the first half of 2022 were Sunlight (20.8 billion rubles, a decrease of 4.5% year-on-year), 585*Zolotoy (13.9 billion rubles, an increase of 7% ), Sokolov (10.5 billion rubles, an increase of 182%), MJUZ (6.2 billion rubles, an increase of 2%) and Adamas (3.6 billion rubles, an increase of 3.8%) , Line of Love (2.1 billion rubles, an increase of 4.6%), etc. The largest networks accounted for 42.4% of the market, the study specifies.

Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics, notes that in 2022 the trend to reduce the number of outlets of jewelry stores has also intensified due to business optimization. During the first half of the year, their number decreased by almost 6%, to about 2.9 thousand objects. Eduard Utkin, General Director of the Guild of Jewelers of Russia, confirms this trend, adding that buyers are partially switching to online shopping due to higher discounts and a wide range of goods concentrated in one place. For example, according to Infoline, Wildberries increased jewelry sales by 48.5% in January-June 2022, to RUB 4.9 billion. and occupied 3.2% in the overall structure of the Russian jewelry market.

Russians today are reducing the number of spontaneous spending, says Alina Kolpakova, head of the Sokolov think tank. Demand for jewelry has dropped about 15% since the beginning of the year, she adds. According to Sokolov, in September, compared to August, sales of gold jewelry, including wedding rings, increased, and vice versa, sales of jewelry with semi-precious or synthetic silver inserts decreased. The average check for gold jewelry for the year decreased by 10%, to 15.6 thousand rubles, in silver it increased by 13%, to 1.7 thousand rubles, the company specifies.

According to the results of the second half of the year, jewelry sales and the market volume may begin to decline. Infoline predicts a drop in sales in July-December by 21.5% year-on-year, to 142 billion rubles. Sokolov estimates the fall of the jewelry market in terms of money by the end of the year by about 8%.

The drop in sales began in mid-September, says Sunlight CEO Dmitry Lazarev. The network recorded a decline of 10–15%. But, according to Mr. Lazarev, sales have recovered in the last three or four days.

Mikhail Burmistrov expects the jewelry market to start recovering in 2023. Russians can consider buying jewelry as a tool to save money from inflation, since investing in traditional currencies for the population – dollars and euros – remains practically inaccessible, the expert says.

At the same time, Eduard Utkin notes that the introduction of mandatory special QR codes from 2023 on both tags and jewelry itself may have a negative impact on the jewelry market. According to the expert, there are not enough readers for QR codes in the country, and the machines available in the country are often expensive.

Alina Kolpakova expects a revival in demand for jewelry with the start of the pre-New Year season in December, while prices are unlikely to change in the near future. Eduard Utkin adds that the cost of jewelry today is held back due to the low exchange rate.

Alina Savitskaya