Jewellery Focus April 2019 | Page 24

FEATURES A BOOMING GLOBAL MARKET A booming global market Nir Debbi, co-founder and CRO at cross-border ecommerce solutions provider Global-e, explores the global popularity of the jewellery industry today and why jewellery brands and retailers need to ensure they are offering a localised online experience in order to attract an international customer base T he watch and fine jewellery industry continues to sparkle. According to a report from McKinsey, annual global sales are expected to grow at a healthy rate of 5 to 6% each year, totalling €250bn (£213bn) by 2020. Moreover, global jewellery sales in particular are growing at a faster rate than any other part of the luxury goods industry. It’s clear that consumer appetite for jewellery is high, and global market growth can be attributed to a variety of factors. This includes the growing number of female consumers that purchase jewellery and luxury items for themselves, as well as the wealthier younger generations such as Millennials and Gen Z who are predicted to represent more than 40% of the overall luxury goods market by 2025. The increasing demand for jewellery is also driven by the rise of digital buyers, many of which are the younger generations who are more comfortable with shopping online. In fact, McKinsey estimates that e-commerce will soon become the third- largest luxury market worldwide, after China and the United States. With this in mind, there is clearly an increased demand from consumers shopping online for luxury and jewellery, and this is heading in a global direction. Currently, China’s jewellery market is the largest in the world, accounting for 30% of global demand. Top consuming countries for fashion jewellery include the USA, India, Japan and Hong Kong. For luxury jewellery, the USA overwhelmingly dominates as the top 24 JEWELLERY FOCUS April 2019 | jewelleryfocus.co.uk