Interface News Reporter | Huang Shan
Interface News Editor | Lou Jingqin
It has been four or five days since major e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com officially opened the 2023 Singles' Day Shopping Festival. After the first wave of pre-sale promotions, some sectors performed well, such as gold, silver and jewellery retail.
According to the data provided by Tmall, the turnover of pearls on the first day of Tmall Double 11 pre-sale increased by more than 450% year-on-year. Tmall officially provided several sets of brand merchant data: "Edison Pearl" this year's main pearl necklace single sales exceeded 10 million at the beginning of the pre-sale event; The turnover of "Pearl Queen" doubled nearly 6 times year-on-year, and the turnover of "Ruan Shi Pearl" doubled nearly 4 times year-on-year.
These three brands are sold are high-quality freshwater pearls and saltwater pearl jewelry, most of the brand prices start at 300 to 500 yuan, if it is produced in Japan Akoya and Tahiti saltwater pearl jewelry pricing can be about 2500 yuan, some with K gold and gem inlay and other materials of pearl jewelry, its pricing even exceeds 5000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
It is worth noting that the shipping places of "Edison Pearl" and "Ruan Shi Pearl" are all in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Zhuji, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, is the world's largest production and marketing base for freshwater pearls. This public town of less than 50 square meters in East China produces 80% of the country's freshwater pearls and more than 70% of the world's freshwater pearls. Official statistics show that the sales of pearl products in Zhuji will exceed 40 billion yuan in 2022.
Not only that, but the majority of domestic online pearl sales also come from this region. At the "2023 Pearl Development Forum" held in Zhuji in May 2023, Zhang Yina, director of the Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory of the Ministry of Commerce, provided a set of data: online sales of gold and pearl industries have formed a trend of regional agglomeration, with online sales of gold in Shenzhen accounting for nearly half and pearl online sales in Shaoxing accounting for 43.2%.
It is worth noting that some of the head pearl enterprises are also located in Shenzhen. The above-mentioned "Pearl Queen" brand is this type, focusing on K gold pearl jewelry, and some products will also add ruby inlays, etc., which pay more attention to design than pearl jewelry produced in Shaoxing. According to the data released at the "2023 Pearl Development Forum", the leading enterprises in pearl online sales account for 61.3% in Shaoxing and Shenzhen.
During the pre-sale period of Singles' Day in 2023, the pearl category is active, which is also the result of the overall digital transformation of the pearl industry base. According to the "Overview of China's Jewellery Market" report written by HKTDC Research, Xinchangle Village in Shanxiahu Town, Zhuji has cultivated a group of professional e-commerce teams, and the village's online sales exceeded 4 billion yuan in 2022. As of the end of 2022, a total of 25,000 entrepreneurs have gone to Shanxiahu Town, including more than 3,000 anchors who are stationed in Shanxiahu.
"Demi Pearl", which was originally a merchant in the industrial belt, has been actively transforming in recent years, and has also opened a flagship store on Tmall. "Through the live broadcast of the anchor and the planting of grass, more and more young consumers like pearls, which drives the sales growth of pearls." Demi Pearl said, "This year, we focused on live broadcasting, and the turnover doubled significantly year-on-year. ”
In fact, the pearl market has been showing a high level of heat since entering 2023. Jiemian News previously reported that as of the end of May 2023, the pearl turnover of East China International Jewelry City, the largest pearl trading mall in Zhuji, has reached about 23.2 billion yuan. According to official statistics from Zhuji, by the end of May 2023, the total online and offline sales of Zhuji pearls have reached 25 billion yuan, exceeding 60% of the whole year of 2022.
"This year the pearl element is back." Yu Qing, founder and designer of the designer brand Lost in echo, told Jiemian News, "Our jewelry series is regarded as a pearl-based element, which exploded in 2020, and it was dull for a few years in the middle, and it became popular again this year." ”
During the 2023 618 Shopping Festival, the head pearl enterprises showed outstanding results. On the Douyin 618 jewelry and diamond brand sales list, in the top ten rankings dominated by a gold brand, the pearl brand occupies 3 seats, including the "Ruan Shi Pearl" brand. It must be mentioned that thanks to the earliest short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, the live broadcast content of pearl opening has set off the latest wave of pearl fever in recent years. Therefore, the Douyin live broadcast room is also the earliest platform for pearl merchants who have transformed into live broadcasts.
The popularity of the pearl market has also led some jewelry brands to add more pearl jewelry, and pearl jewelry is also one of the key products to be promoted during this year's Double 11.
Wu Yin, founder and CEO of the light luxury jewelry brand YINYIN, told Jiemian News that the new pearl-themed products are the key products promoted by the brand this year's Double 11. "There is supply and demand in the pearl market, and there is also the problem of Japan. (Although) it is very chaotic right now, it is still necessary to seize the opportunity at this stage. ”
Wu Yin also revealed to Jiemian News, "The overall water storage state of the pre-sale is the same as that of 618." "The so-called e-commerce water storage period refers to the pre-sale stage before the seller does a big promotion activity, and this stage is to allow buyers to collect, purchase or prepay through various marketing methods, so the e-commerce water storage state refers to the pre-sale situation.
In addition to the pearl category, the gold category will still be the preferred jewelry category for consumers during the pre-sale period of Singles' Day in 2023. According to Tmall data, the turnover of gold categories on the first day of pre-sale on Singles' Day this year increased by more than 250% year-on-year. Douyin has not yet released the relevant data of the pre-sale stage.
Some of the leading gold companies still maintained their 618 activities in 2023, as well as their performance during Singles' Day in previous years. According to the data provided by Tmall, brands such as Chow Tai Fook, Chow Sang Sang, Chow Tai Sang, Lao Miao Gold, and Kelai Di achieved several times year-on-year growth on the first day of pre-sale. These brands are all the top 10 jewelry brands in terms of sales during Tmall 618 in 2023.
As the gold price has continued to rise since the second quarter of 2023, the growth rate of gold consumption has slowed compared with the first quarter of the New Year's Day and Chinese New Year holidays. In fact, brands such as Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang Sang have also mentioned the negative impact of the continued rise in gold prices on consumption willingness in their financial reports in the last two quarters.
As a result, consumers will be able to purchase gold products at a price significantly lower than the current market price per gram of gold during Singles' Day. On October 24, the day of the official opening of Tmall Double 11, the market price of gold was 611 yuan per gram. The interface news reporter saw on Xiaohongshu that some netizens who placed orders to buy Chow Sang Sang and Chow Tai Fook on the day of pre-sale said that after the platform's big promotion and various consumption voucher subsidies, they would be more satisfied with the final unit price of 440 to 450 yuan including labor expenses.
The continued rise in the gold price has also made consumers more inclined to buy gold bars and coins. According to the latest statistics from the China Gold Association, in the first three quarters of this year, the national gold jewelry consumption was 552.04 tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.72%; Bar and coin consumption was 222.37t, up 15.98% y-o-y, significantly higher than jewellery spending.
Laomiao Gold said through Tmall that 4 hours before the pre-sale, Laomiao Gold sold more than 3,000 gold bars, with sales of nearly 100 million yuan. And a good luck gold bar with a coding certificate from Laomiao Gold, "In just 4 hours of pre-sale, our store transaction exceeded 9 times compared with last year." ”
This has also allowed gold brands to focus more on pure gold jewelry, gold bean products, as well as gold bars and coins when preparing for this year's Double 11, rather than promoting new products.
It is worth mentioning that online gold jewellery sales in 2023 may be difficult to continue the performance during Singles' Day in 2022. During the 2022 Double 11 period, the transaction scale of gold jewelry on major e-commerce platforms reached 10 billion yuan. But by May 2023, Wanlian Securities data shows that the transaction scale of gold jewelry on major e-commerce platforms has shrunk to about 5 billion. This is related to the sharp drop in demand for diamond jewellery. During the 618 period in 2023, diamond brands have been collectively absent from the top ten lists of jewelry on platforms such as Tmall and Douyin.
Singles' Day strategy has also changed dramatically, with brands no longer interested in participating in low-cost promotions, but instead using this stage as a way to build brand image, improve membership services, and warm up for the year-end festive season. Wu Yin, the founder of YIN, told Jiemian News, "The long-term strategy of the brand is to reduce the weight of big promotions and pay more attention to the services, benefits and daily sales of VIP members, but this year will also combine the year-end Double 11, Double Day and New Year's Festival to make the atmosphere at the end of the year to give everyone a more valuable year-end purchase experience." ”