Guo Jiyao for China Economic Weekly | in Beijing

The 5-day China International Jewelry Fair was successfully concluded at the end of October.

40,000 square meters, 6 venues, 1,600 booths, more than 100,000 visitors... This is the largest jewelry exhibition in China with many exhibitors, co-sponsored by the China Jewelry and Jade Jewelry Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as the "China Treasure Association") and Jewelry and jade jewelry National Inspection Group (hereinafter referred to as the "jewelry National Inspection"), has always been regarded as the weather vane of the development of the jewelry industry and the "barometer" reflecting the market consumption heat.

"From the situation of the past two years, as an optional consumer goods, the jewelry industry has shown more than expected self-healing ability and strong industrial resilience." Bi Lijun, vice president and secretary-general of the China Treasure Association, said at the opening ceremony of the China International Jewelry Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as the "International Jewelry Exhibition").

As Mr Bi says, jewellery consumption is booming. From Generation Z to fall in love with gold, to young people fall in love with jade and jade, this year, a number of jewelry categories ushered in a consumption frenzy, and the price of all kinds of hot jewelry has also risen.

Why Jewelry consumption is booming? Which jewelry products are the hottest? Under the threat of e-commerce, how will the offline exhibition transform?

Pearls were piled up like rice on the stand

Check out the International Jewelry Fair: Pearls are piled like rice on the stand

Coming to the international jewelry exhibition, the first impression is that the categories are particularly rich.

"Our exhibition covers almost the whole category of jewelry, and the extremely rich product is a highlight of this international jewelry fair." Li Yongli, director of the exhibition division of China Baobao Association, told the reporter of China Economic Weekly.

From dazzling diamonds, satin-like pearls, to colorful gems, gorgeous gold jewelry... All kinds of jewelry are dazzling, and the exhibition volume of exhibitors is especially large, quite a bit of "jewelry supermarket" feeling.

On the afternoon of October 28, the reporter visited the No. 1 exhibition hall, and did not even finish visiting the first floor, and his eyes were turned sour by the brilliance of the jewelry.

In a pearl booth, gathered around a lot of guests. I saw pearls like rice in the supermarket, piled on the stand. When the reporter proposed to the staff to see a certain point of the pearl necklace, the staff will be a large necklace "crash" on the tablecloth, "you pick, there are better brightness", said, and took out a large necklace.

"Although I have bought pearls online many times, I always feel that I have to look at jewelry offline, and I can rest assured when I hold it in my hand, and there are more offline goods, and I can pick them slowly." A young consumer who is choosing a pearl necklace told reporters.

Li Yongli believes that for jewelry consumption, offline has an irreplaceable advantage, that is, to see the real thing. "Because the presentation of jewelry under different lights is not the same, seeing the real thing, consumers are more reassured." At the same time, the international jewelry exhibition also provides an opportunity for consumers to communicate with merchants face-to-face, so that consumers can fully express their own demands, and also help merchants understand the current customer shopping trend and other first-hand information."

In addition to being an important channel to promote sales and have important trading functions, the exhibition also has a strong social attribute, which can establish more efficient communication.

"Communication is important," Li said. The exhibition is to build a time, space, personnel, products are more concentrated scene for both buyers and sellers, while providing a lot of information, on this basis to help buyers and sellers make more accurate judgments."

According to him, in order to build an effective exchange and cooperation platform, the exhibition also opened a number of lectures and forum activities, such as 2023 International jewelry Academic Exchange, 2023 the second President's meeting of the China Treasure Association, into the China Craft Group, 2023 jewelry industry capital Forum. "Many jewelry fairs don't do this kind of networking, but we feel that in addition to facilitating transactions, it is also very important to build a communication platform to help popularize jewelry knowledge and promote peer exchanges."

It is worth mentioning that this exhibition has also set up an international exhibition area that brings together 40 foreign exhibitors, mainly from Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Italy and other countries. At the same time, the international exhibition area also provides more business negotiations and development opportunities for domestic and foreign jewelry enterprises, and promotes international cooperation and exchanges in the jewelry industry.

Li Yongli told reporters that the China Treasure Association is promoting the jewelry exhibition towards internationalization. In the past, the autumn international jewelry exhibition was held in late November, but this year it was advanced to the end of October, because the next in November 24-27, the China Treasure Association will hold 2023 jewelry Development Conference and Hainan International Jewelry Exhibition in Hainan. "We plan to make an exhibition with international influence in Hainan, hoping to take advantage of Hainan's preferential policies and other aspects to be more overseas." Li Yongli said.

The higher the price, the more you buy! Jewelry consumption outperformed expectations

Since the beginning of this year, jewelry consumption has been hot, from gold to pearls to jade colored treasure, the price of major jewelry categories has also risen. But consumer enthusiasm has not waned.

"In the first three quarters of this year, the retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry above the quota reached 247.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 12.2 percent, second only to the 18.7 percent growth of the catering industry, and far higher than the average of 6.8 percent for all consumer goods." Bi Lijun introduced at the opening ceremony of this year's International Jewelry Exhibition, "From the situation of the past two years, as an optional consumer goods, the jewelry industry has performed more than expected self-repair ability and strong industrial resilience."

"The recovery of consumption can be felt directly at the exhibition. For example, at the international jewelry fair held in March, we had more than 100,000 visitors, which is about the same as before the epidemic." Li Yongli said.

As the "barometer" of the jewelry industry, the popularity of the international jewelry exhibition is a mirror of the hot jewelry consumption. The reporter saw at the exhibition that "top flow" gold and pearls are highly sought after, and the relevant booth attracted many young consumers to stop.

Li Yongli analysis, jewelry consumption is hot mainly for the following two reasons: First, the industry exists consumption stratification. "Because the jewelry material is very rich, the price gap of each material is also relatively large, it can be said that it is rich and thrifty by people, what level is available, not all for high consumer groups." The second is the rise of young consumers. The popularization rate of jewelry knowledge is getting higher and higher, and the personalized demand is increasing.

"In the future, I think personalized demand will be an important trend in jewelry consumption. From the supply side, jewelry materials are now very rich, innovation has been achieved, the process has also been improved, and many new designers are growing very fast. From the perspective of consumption, with the improvement of economic level, consumers' aesthetic demand is getting higher and higher. In the future, small-batch, personalized design products will become one of the popular trends." Li Yongli analysis said.

The reporter saw at the scene that many jewelry brands launched their own research and development, process innovation products: Caibai shares sub-brand "Caibai handed down" new products, when the tide · flying - [Fu bamboo] series, followed the gold diamond-setting process and weaving effect, showing the fashion beauty of traditional craft; Colorful Yunnan brings a new 3.0 bangle bracelet, different from the previous round stick bracelet and flat mouth bracelet, the designer chooses the most comfortable curvature among the many inner wall of the bracelet according to hundreds of times of playing and trying, painless wearing and improving comfort; Edison Pearl with unique water quality selection control, color control, as well as mother shell gene control, planting site and other series of technologies, developed "Edison pearl", is a major innovation in pearl culture technology...

After the rise of online live broadcasting, how to transform offline exhibitions

In recent years, the rise of live e-commerce has also blown to the jewelry industry, and now, jewelry and jade have become one of the high-profile tracks in the field of live e-commerce. In Zhejiang Zhuji, Shenzhen Shuibei such agglomeration effect of industrial belt, has established a complete industrial chain of live broadcast base.

In Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, for example, the turnover of Zhuji pearls has exceeded 40 billion yuan in 2022, of which online sales exceeded 25 billion yuan.

On the whole, according to the "Jewelry industry e-commerce Platform Observation report", the online consumption of jewelry has gradually climbed in the past three years. 2022.4 Rolling annual online e-commerce platform jewelry consumption reached about 67.7 billion yuan, an increase of 14%, the growth rate is also increasing year by year.

Online is booming, what does this mean for offline exhibitions? Will it affect them?

The reporter saw in the international jewelry exhibition that many exhibitors set up live broadcasting equipment, taking into account the offline business, while skillfully introducing products towards the other end of the screen.

And this international jewelry exhibition has also opened up a live exhibition area to adapt to the online consumption model of young people. According to Li Yongli, this is the first live broadcast exhibition area officially launched by the jewelry exhibition in China, inviting many head anchors with millions of fans from domestic influential and transactional e-commerce platforms.

"The original intention of doing this live area is to better integrate the offline exhibition and online live e-commerce, and we found that the effect is good." The live streaming during the jewelry show has performed very well in their respective platform sales." Li Yongli said.

In addition to the organizers, some exhibitors are also actively trying digital transformation. For example, the intelligent service plate independently designed and developed by Caibai Shares uses RF reading technology to shift the sales system to the mobile end, achieving rich product display and fast payment and collection. In addition, digital human live streaming has been added to allow virtual characters to interact with customers, providing a whole new entertainment and engagement experience for viewers.

"For new things, we are willing to explore how it fits with the exhibition." Li Yongli said.

But he also stressed that for the jewelry industry, the advantages of offline exhibitions in terms of social attributes cannot be replaced. "Communication is very important. We hold this exhibition, is to provide practitioners with a platform to exchange products, models, designs and so on. At this exhibition, businesses can find better cooperation models, jewelry lovers can buy their favorite products, and all people who care about jewelry can grasp the new trends in the jewelry industry. It's a very integrated platform."

(This article was published in China Economic Weekly, No. 20, 2023)