The global jewelry market size was valued at $249.02 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $5518.90 billion by 2030 according to a new report by the Grand View Research. The rise in demand, according to the Plumb Club industry and market insights, is boosted by ‘gender fluidity’.
“Luxury jewelry has also grown into vehicles of self-expression, with many buyers looking for unique and important pieces,” said Michael Connor, marketing director at the Plumb Club at the just ended JCK Jewelry show in Las Vegas, US.
Connor said that Gen Z, which represents consumers born between the late 90s and 2012, is particularly resistant to classifications or labels, “and moving more towards fluidity”.
“As gender fluidity becomes more commonplace boundaries are being broken in jewelry trends, from watches to wedding rings and beyond,” the Plumb Club told a gathering of diamond miners, manufacturers, traders and jewelers at the JCK show.
Connor said that more and more brands are now restructuring their collections to be more gender neutral and filling the gap and cater to non-gender norms, classifying gender fluid jewelry as neither feminine nor masculine.
The Plumb Club’s 2023 consumer insights follows a 2020 Pew study that found that 35 percent of Gen Z knows someone as identifying as they/them.
Now with the future of every business depending on the next generation, companies in the diamond industry have begun to prepare for the future. In August 2022, Tiffany & Co unveiled its “Locks”, its first all gender collections while Boucheron presented its equivalent dubbed “Icons” in September 2022. Before that, big brands like Gucci and Bulgari had also launched gender fluid collections.
Gen Z consumers definitely want natural diamonds
Raised in the hyper connected world of the internet, social media and mobile phones Gen Z is said to be on track to be the most educated and decisive generation so far. This cohort of the consumers born between late 90s and 2012 seems to have many expectations. While capturing their mind could prove to be a lot of work for many jewelers and other diamond retailers, their choice between natural diamonds and synthetic one so far leans on the former.
A consumer research conducted on behalf of the Natural Diamond Council found that only vacations beat out diamonds in terms of desirability for both Gen-Z and millennial consumers.
At the same time, the Plumb Club industry insights showed that future purchases will largely be affected by social media platforms where Gen-Z and millennial consumers often obtain shopping inspiration.
The analysis confirms that these set of consumers commonly research diamond jewelry before making a purchase.
Quoting the National Diamond Council report that was published in 2021, Connor said, “majority of the people who buy natural diamonds jewelry wear it themselves”.
According to the Plumb Club the most popular piece of diamond jewelry that customers are buying is a diamond ring while diamond pendant or neck piece comes second. Market research data shared at the 2023 JCK show also showed that demand for colorful diamonds has been rising.
“As a result, demand for diamonds is soaring,” said Connor at one of the JCK Talks.
In response to the market needs, the biggest diamond producer by value, De Beers in 2022 increased to 34.6 million carats, up from 2021’s 32.3 million carats, reflecting strong operational performance and higher planned levels of production to meet the sustained strong demand for rough diamonds, particularly in the first half of 2022. The company sources its natural diamonds from Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa.
For the first quarter of 2023, De Beers reported that rough diamond production was 8.9 million carats, same output as 2022’s first quarter output. In Botswana, where De Beers sources nearly 70 percent of its diamonds, production increased by 12 percent to 6.9 million carats, primarily driven by the planned treatment of higher grade ore and continued strong plant performance at Orapa.
De Beers, which is currently locked in talks with Botswana government over sales of diamonds broke its six year old record after rough diamond sales soared in 2022. Through its subsidiary, De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DGSS), the mining company hosts rough diamond sales 10 times a year that are also known as ‘Sights’. DGSS sells around 90 per cent of De Beers Group’s rough diamonds, by value, via term contracts to customers. The other 10 percent is sold via De Beers Group Auctions. The 135 year old diamond company earned $5.67 billion from the ten rough diamonds Sights, surpassing the 2016 record of $5.6 billion. The higher sales record follows what has been a strong recovery in the diamond industry, improving on 2021’s $4.82 billion, that eclipsed the $2.79 billion earned in 2020 after COVID-19 roiled the diamond industry, reducing the gains made in 2019 after the diamond miner sold $4 billion worth of rough diamonds. In 2018, De Beers ten sales cycles earned $5.39 billion and $5.31 billion in 2017.
