As the Christmas season approaches, there is a growing tendency for visitors to sites of jewelry companies and luxury goods manufacturers, Rapaport reports. ComScore Inc. in October, recorded traffic growth among the top 10 categories of sites.
The most significant increase in the number of unique visitors came to the sites of retailers and shopping centers, traffic in this category jumped by 61% compared to September to 22.7 million unique visitors. Among the other categories of sites that registered a sharp increase in traffic, sites for color suppliers, gifts and postcards (up 32%), car rental companies (up 30%), tax documents (24%), news sites (an increase of 21%), toys (up 14%), suppliers of perfume (up 12%), jewelry and luxury goods (up 9%).

2013, sales in jewelry stores in the US showed an annual increase of 4.2% and reached $ 2.258 billion. Sales growth slowed, as in August sales increased by 6.9% on a year-on-year basis, Rapaport reports.
As previously reported, the total sales of jewelry and watches in the US showed an increase of 5.3% in September this year. In addition, the consumer price index for jewelry in September rose by only 0.2% on a year-on-year basis, remaining generally stable.
Sales in jewelry stores in the first nine months of 2013 increased by 8.8% on a year-on-year basis, to $ 21.933 billion. The highest sales was recorded in May at $ 3 billion.
The National Retail Federation (National Retail Federation, NRF) believes that the October statistics gives rise to positive forecasts for the upcoming Christmas season.
"Consumer spending is growing as the holiday shopping season approaches," said NRF President Matthew Shay. "It seems that consumer confidence has been strengthened by lower fuel prices. As sales growth is observed in the retail sector, retailers will continue to implement active promotional campaigns to attract buyers and increase sales during the Christmas season. "

This year, since the Black Friday, there have been recorded retail sales totaling over $ 12 billion, which is 2.3% higher than the corresponding figure for the previous year, Israelidiamond.co.il reported. According to data from various sources, covering the results of sales in Cyber-Monday, online sales jumped by almost 20% in a spurious calculation.
The latest data of the National Retail Federation of the USA show an increase in sales of jewelry for the period from Black Friday to Cyber ​​Monday. Almost 17% of consumers this weekend purchased jewelry (compared with 15% of consumers in the same period in 2012).
The Israeli Diamond Institute for the first time conducted an advertising campaign timed to Cyber ​​Monday, collecting the best promotions for diamond products offered by Israeli companies, offering them to customers directly on their portal and through IDI's social networking accounts.

According to preliminary estimates by the World Gold Council, the global demand for gold for jewelry production in the third quarter fell by 15% to $ 20.75 billion, reports Rapaport.
Decrease in demand is mainly due to a drop in prices, as the demand for gold for jewelry rose by 5% to 486.7 tonnes, reaching the highest level for the third quarter since 2010. The weighted average price of gold in the third quarter was 20% lower than the corresponding figure a year earlier and was $ 1 326.30 per ounce.
The World Gold Council noted that since the beginning of the year to date, jewelry demand for gold in value terms has grown by 6% to $ 77.3 billion.
As a result of the reporting quarter, the aggregate global demand for gold fell by 37% to $ 37.04 billion, which is explained by the outflow of capital from the gold exchange index funds and a 65% drop in investment demand for gold.
The leader in the volume of jewelry demand for gold in the third quarter was China, where the production of 24-carat gold is gaining popularity, it accounted for 34% of the total global demand. Chinese jewelry demand for gold in value terms increased by 3% to $ 7.34 billion.

prices for certified diamonds were stable, due to improved demand during the Christmas purchasing season, Rapaport reported. Diamond dealers focused their attention on deliveries to American retailers, noting the high demand for diamonds of commercial quality of the lowest price category, which is due to the propensity of consumers to save and reduce spending on holiday purchases.
The price index RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI ™) for diamonds weighing 1 carat in November fell by 0.1%. RAPI for diamonds weighing 0.30 carats increased by 1.4%, and diamonds weighing 0.50 carats went up by 0.2%. With respect to diamonds weighing 3 carats, the index fell by 0.3%.
The monthly report Rapaport for November 2013, entitled "Holiday Stability" (Holiday Stability) notes that in early November, the diamond trade was calm, as Indian dealers were on holidays on the occasion of the holiday Diwali. Then the situation on the market improved, sales forecasts for Thanksgiving were growing, but the trade turnover remained below the corresponding figures in previous years. There is a good demand for diamonds weighing 0.3 and 0.5 carats in color HJ, purity SI1-I2, as well as diamonds of fantasy colors. According to some reports, US retail sales at the weekend on Thanksgiving day fell by 2.7%, and average spending on the buyer fell by 4% to $ 407.02, as stated by the National Retail Federation.
In the markets of the Far Eastern region, there remains a high demand for gold jewelry and a stable demand for jewelry with precious stones. Chinese consumers enjoy a decline in gold prices, which fell in price in 2013 by almost 25%. Indian retail jewelry sales during the celebration of Diwali were relatively weak. The government constrains the volume of gold consumption - since the beginning of the year import duties have increased several times, reaching 10%.

Exhibition Business of Design Week, taking place in Hong Kong from 2 to 7 December, devoted to the work of Belgian designers. The highlight of their presentation was a demonstration of a pair of diamond boots, which shocked visitors.
AWDC (Antwerp World Diamond Centre) and Flanders Fashion Institute (Flanders Fashion Institute) commissioned the production of this unique pair of shoes Diarough, a leading diamond company in Antwerp, and received international recognition design duo Ana Vandervosta (An Vandevorst) and Filip Arickx (Filip Arickx ) - AFVandevorst.
Designers poshili pair of truncated boots of black skin, which were fully coated with a layer of diamond fancy "champagne" colors and gray and pink diamonds from Diarough / UNI-Design weighing 1,550 carats.
A team of highly skilled craftsmen from the Indian enterprise UNI-Design fixed 39,083 diamonds on the boots. The firm cross-shaped AFVandevorst logo is made of rare reddish-pink diamonds. 4.75 kg of gold were also used in the manufacture of boots.
The whole process, from design modeling and tailoring, to selection, sorting and delivery of diamonds, took 30 thousand man-hours.
The cost of this pair of shoes is about 2.4 million euros.

demand for polished diamonds will continue to rise in the first quarter of 2014, because, firstly, US retailers replenish their supplies after Christmas, and secondly, the main direction of supply after the Christmas holidays will be the Far East, where the Chinese New Year will be celebrated.
According to Mike Aggett, Managing Director of H. Goldie & Co., which provides brokerage services to De Beers sightholders, the level of refusals during the December site was rather low. "[Refusals] touched mainly fantasy diamonds, Z / M quality diamonds and colored diamonds," wrote Edgett in his blog about the site. "The cost of these goods remains too high for the market."
Nurit Rothmann, David Harari and Guy Harari, the founders of Bluedax, an online diamond broker, said demand for better quality rough diamonds in the secondary market remained relatively low, despite the fact that the stones more than 1 carat and colored stones weighing from 5 to 15 carats were sold at cost. Rothmann mentioned the high demand for stones weighing 1-2 carats, as well as black stones, cubic stones and small stones, as Indian manufacturing companies are replenishing their stocks.
Rothmann, Edgett and sightholders interviewed by Rapaport News agreed that profitability remains a problem for manufacturing companies.
"Prices for rough diamonds are still too high compared to the prices for diamonds," one of the sightholders from Israel said. - Therefore, buyers either refuse the goods, or buy it and store it in a warehouse, until the prices for diamonds grow. I believe that prices for diamonds can still rise, especially if we talk about a product weighing 0.30 carats. "

PC Jeweller Company has presented a new line of jewelry called SPECTRUM, which since December 16 has been on sale in 39 PC Jeweller stores all over the country.
The SPECTRUM collection was developed taking into account the trend towards buying light and simpler jewelry, which are popular among young consumers and working class representatives. Motives used in the design of products from the new collection go back to the colors of the rainbow - decorations are strewn with colored diamonds and precious stones of fashionable forms in a frame of yellow or white gold. The collection consists of earrings, bracelets, rings, pendants and sets with pendants, which are presented in various colors of the rainbow from red to purple.
PCJ positions the SPECTRUM collection as a series of affordable jewelry that sells for between 10,000 and 120,000 rupees.

According to a new study by Citigroup Inc. conducted by Hart Research, this year more than a third of Americans surveyed (35%) plan to spend less on presents than last year.
Nevertheless, it is noted that this is the lowest level of reduction of the holiday budget for the period since the beginning of the financial crisis.
According to the study, 11% of Americans plan to increase holiday spending, and more than half of those surveyed (52%) will keep spending at last year's level.
On average, Americans spend $ 968 on purchases this season, which is $ 60 more than the corresponding figures for 2011, according to the study.
"Probably, Americans do not always follow a few simple ways to save money during the holiday season. But many still have the time to stretch their holiday budget this year by comparing online prices, using bonus points accumulated on credit cards, buying gifts, and finding the best offers through social networks, "said Linda Descano ), the head of Citi for content, social networks and marketing in North America.

Despite the recent reduction in the trade deficit in India, it is planned to maintain the current restrictions on gold imports.
The active lobbying of the participants in the Indian market of gold bars, which are trying to deal with high premiums and supply shortages, could not convince the government, which fears that the trade balance will deteriorate and the national currency rate will fall again. According to a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Finance, at the moment no proposals are being considered to mitigate measures aimed at limiting the import of gold.
In recent months, the Indian government and the central bank have taken a number of measures to reduce imports of gold, which ranks second in import value in the Indian trade balance.