Jewelry hasn’t lost its shine for gift-givers this holiday season, but business owners are expecting a bit more price sensitivity from customers after a surge in gold prices this year.
The holiday season remains a key period for the jewelry industry, with gift items accounting for a significant share of yearly revenues. But jewellers have had to raise prices as the cost of gold sharply increased — soaring roughly 55 per cent year-to-date to top the US$4,000 per ounce mark.
“Anybody and everybody I believe is raising prices and if they’re not, they should be. Because what you have in stock, you cannot replace for the same price if you’re going to reorder it today,” said Colin Nash, president of the Canadian Jewelry Group and owner of Nash Jewellers.
Based on what his business has seen, consumers are still spending so far this year, but by lesser amounts in the face of rising prices — not just for gold, but for the cost of living overall.
“I think that we’re still going to get the traffic, it’s just a question of how much and what are they going to be buying,” he said.
Nash said he thinks some price-sensitive consumers may avoid higher-end gold products altogether in favour of less expensive sterling silver items.
James Poag, co-owner of James O. Poag Jewellers, said he is also seeing consumers keeping a tighter grip on their wallets.
“Maybe some of the product mixes are changing, we’re seeing a lot of lab-grown diamonds and a lot of larger hollow pieces of jewelry as opposed to heavier cast pieces just due to the price of gold,” he said.
He’s also seen an increase in repairs, with people choosing to restore older pieces instead of replacing them, while other customers are trading in older pieces of jewelry and repurposing them into a new design.
Larger jewelry brands are also making adjustments.
Mejuri CEO and co-founder Noura Sakkijha said in a statement that the company introduced 10-karat solid gold products to provide more accessible price points. She added that offering a wide range of materials, including 10- and 14-karat gold as well as vermeil and sterling silver, gives consumers more choice.
“We also made selective and measured price adjustments on certain 14-karat pieces to reflect raw material increases. At the same time, we’re seeing customers explore different materials and gravitate toward more delicate pieces in gold, which we expect to continue during the holiday season,” she said.
But not all price adjustments come from decisions made at the store level.
Nash said that since his company works with higher-end brands like Rolex, Tudor and Roberto Coin, those brands dictate price increases and set their own manufacturer’s suggested retail price. He said once a brand decides that a price increase is needed, it notifies any stores carrying their product to follow suit.
“As soon as they (larger brands) say a 10 per cent price increase on each of the products, we have to follow suit because the prices here have to match what they’re selling for in Calgary, Vancouver, even in the (United) States,” Nash said.
Poag added that sharp rises in gold prices have made repricing difficult.
“It is a constant battle. We have 2,500 rings, so it literally takes months to go through to do repricing, so there certainly is a significant lag time,” he said.
Poag said since the run-up in the commodity price, an average consumer might be paying about 25 to 40 per cent more, depending on the gold content and the item they are purchasing.
There’s no doubt the holiday season is a key time for jewellers.
Poag said it’s typical in the industry for December sales to account for about 20 to 25 per cent of annual revenues.
As sales start to ramp up, Nash said it’s difficult to predict where the price of gold will go as it continues to trade above the US$4,000 mark. Prices hit US$4,300 in October.
“Maybe we hit our ceiling, maybe it’s coming down, but I don’t know. If I was a gambling man, I would still probably bet that gold will stay steady and keep moving just not at the pace that it has been,” he said.
Given the current price dynamics, Poag said he doesn’t think gold prices will come down significantly and it’s not worth it for consumers to delay purchasing in hopes of lower prices.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a significant downward trend,” he said.
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Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2025.