U.S. jewelers had great hope for 2020. The 2019 end-of-year November-December holiday shopping season was strong, a trend that carried over to the January-February 2020 Valentine's Day selling period, when jewelry shoppers opened their wallets for their sweethearts. Jewelry industry sales were up solidly by an estimated 7% in the first six weeks of 2020 through February 14, 2020 (Valentine's Day) in the U.S. market.
With little warning, jewelry demand suddenly evaporated in late February and early March as the coronavirus attacked America. New York City - the center of the U.S. diamond and jewelry industry ???,?" suddenly became the epicenter for the virus' assault on the U.S.
Stores were closed, consumers lost their jobs by the millions, and discretionary spending on retail categories such as jewelry declined dramatically as the pandemic spread across the country throughout March.
The numbers tell the story: jewelry sales in March, April, and May of 2020 dropped to unprecedented levels not even seen during the Great Depression of 1929-1933.
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