- The largest jewelry company in the US, Signet Jewelers, said its engagement ring sales were down sharply.
- The company president said a decline in appointments during the pandemic created an “engagement gap.”
- The news comes after David’s Bridal filed for bankruptcy.
The year 2022 saw a wedding boom — but that may be coming to an abrupt end, according to data from America’s largest jewelry company.
Signet Jewelers, the parent company of jewelry brands including Kay Jewelers, Jared and Zales, revealed that its engagement ring sales dropped sharply in fiscal 2023. CNN informed.
The outlet reported that Signet President and Chief Consumer Officer Jamie Singleton spoke about declining sales at Signet Jewelers’ investor day on April 18, citing an “engagement gap” as the cause of the decline.
As CNN reported, Singleton noted that there was a sharp decline in dating in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, with couples getting engaged after an average of 3.25 years of dating according to internal company research.
Because many people weren’t dating for much of 2020, there were fewer couples getting engaged in 2022, and Signet expects the same for the duration of 2023.
Signet Jewelry is the parent company of brands like Zales and Kay Jewelers.
Grace Cary/Getty Images
“So what’s happened in the last two years is what we anticipated and what we planned for,” Singleton said, according to CNN. “Engagement jewelry sales were lackluster in fiscal 2023 and we expect them to remain so for the remainder of fiscal 2024.”
The loss is huge for Signet, as 50% of its total sales come from brides, according to CNN. The outlet also reported that Singleton said Signet’s engagement ring sales will need to increase 25% by 2026 to reach the level of engagements they saw before the pandemic.
Singleton’s announcement comes on the heels of David’s Bridal files for bankruptcy and lay off more than 9,000 employees, pointing to problems for the broader wedding industry in the wake of the pandemic.
But Singleton is optimistic engagement ring sales will return to pre-pandemic numbers based on the dating patterns the company is seeing.
“As people start dating after lockdowns, we monitor the return of dating,” he said, according to CNN. “Appointments are actually up 8% even before Covid.”
