Gold consumption and investment demand are rising across the board

2018-09-04

A structural factor contributing to the recent growth in gold sales in China may be the gradual shift of gold retailers to a gram pricing model for 24-karat gold. In an effort to provide more transparency to consumers, China's domestic jewelry retailers are gradually adding 'price-per-gram' products while reducing the number of categories that use 'price-per-piece' pricing. As a result, retailers are increasingly shifting their focus to heavier gold products: the heavier the jewelry, the higher the profit on "gram" sales. This, on the other hand, has helped increase the demand for gold jewelry in China by tons. Ancient gold products continue to take center stage in the Chinese gold jewelry market. Given the popularity of these new products, retailers and manufacturers have also stepped up their efforts to promote gold jewelry in recent quarters. For example, Chow Tai Fook's heritage collection - its vintage gold category - accounted for 40% of the group's total gold jewellery retail sales by value in FY2021, up from 29% in 2020 [1]. In addition, as mentioned earlier, retailers' shift in focus to heavier grams of gold jewelry has also helped sales of textured antique gold products. The low-key and luxurious design of these products and the perfect integration of traditional cultural elements are still favored by the market, and also attract a large number of young consumers [2]. In the third quarter, the market share of hard gold jewelry was relatively stable. These lightweight, stylish products have always been favored by young consumers. According to our recent research, hard gold jewelry will account for 22% of retailers' inventory in 2021, second only to general gold products.

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