Editor’s Note
This article examines how Laopu Gold has achieved remarkable growth by blending traditional craftsmanship with a luxury positioning, standing out in a challenging market.
Recently, gold jewelry brands have successively released their semi-annual reports. In the first half of the year, Laopu Gold’s performance remained outstanding, with sales increasing by 249% year-on-year, revenue growing by 251%, and profit during the period surging by 285.8%. With all three performance indicators more than doubling, Laopu Gold undoubtedly continues to “impress” the market. In the current generally pressured market environment, it can be described as having a “solo celebration.”
Searching Laopu Gold’s official website reveals several prominent words: “Chinese Ancient Handmade Gold Ware.” This is also Laopu Gold’s biggest selling point. Founded in 2009, Laopu Gold is the first brand in China to promote the concept of “ancient gold craftsmanship.” In 2019, Laopu Gold pioneered the launch of “pure gold inlaid with diamonds” products in the industry, and in 2022, it introduced “gold base enamel” products.
Laopu Gold’s prospectus mentions that due to the softness of pure gold, processing it, especially inlaying diamonds and gemstones on the surface of pure gold, requires complex craftsmanship. Unprofessional techniques may cause pure gold to bend, be squeezed, or deform. Laopu Gold uses traditional manual techniques to make jewelry. Some of these traditional crafts, such as “filigree inlay” and “gold and silver inlay” techniques, are national intangible cultural heritage. At the same time, Laopu Gold also leverages the advantages of other ancient gold manufacturing processes, such as lost-wax casting, hammering, engraving, hollowing, and enameling.
Based on ancient gold craftsmanship, Laopu Gold’s operation adopts a luxurification strategy. Laopu Gold targets the high-end market, with product pricing mainly based on a “fixed price,” and high-priced products (over 10,000 yuan) accounting for as high as 90%. Store locations focus on high-end areas. The prospectus shows that most of Laopu Gold’s stores are located in luxury districts of China’s first-tier and new first-tier cities. As of June 30, Laopu Gold had a total of 41 self-operated stores, with 6 located in SKP complexes and 11 in Mixc commercial centers.
A high-end shopping experience is also part of Laopu Gold’s luxurification, such as establishing VIP membership rooms, one-on-one service, and a comfortable environment, allowing consumers to feel respected and valued. The combination of ancient gold craftsmanship and luxurification strategy has greatly increased the added value of Laopu Gold’s products.
In the first half of the year, Laopu Gold’s gross profit margin reached as high as 38.1%, far leading the industry. According to data released by Laopu Gold, the average overlap rate between Laopu Gold consumers and consumers of the five major luxury brands—Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Cartier, Bulgari, and Tiffany—is 77.3%.
Behind the greatly enhanced pricing power, the competitive environment faced by Laopu Gold, the “Gold Maotai,” is actually not optimistic. In the past, gold brands focused more on the value-preserving function of products, playing the role more of “gold transporters.” Top gold brands in the industry almost all have thousands of stores, winning through scale.
Laopu Gold adopted a differentiated approach, carving out a new path in the traditional gold track with only 41 stores. Now, this track is attracting more and more participants. Whether it is established chain gold jewelry brands like Chow Tai Fook and Lao Miao Gold, or emerging brands like Duobaoge Gold and Linchao Gold, all are accelerating their efforts in the ancient gold market and launching ancient gold products.
In addition to targeting ancient gold craftsmanship, brands are also beginning to focus on integrating and presenting Chinese style and culture in their products. Chow Tai Seng launched the “National Treasure” series, Caibai Shares introduced the “Floating Light Butterfly Shadow” and “2025 Oriental Garden” series, and Mengjinyuan launched Chinese style series like “Blue and White Ancient Charm” and “Red Charm East.” It is not difficult to see that brands are increasingly valuing the boost that cultural elements bring to product connotation and value.
Undoubtedly, the industry trend dividends that Laopu Gold has enjoyed, other brands also want a share of. After all, while Laopu Gold has been celebrating all the way, some gold jewelry companies are deeply mired in the dilemma of declining revenue and net profit, and the industry’s performance differentiation is obvious.
But is this really the case? There may still be a question mark. Industry observers believe that although Laopu Gold was the first to gain recognition in the “ancient gold” track, what consumers remember is often the word “ancient” rather than “Laopu.” Although its product styles are numerous, they are mostly based on Eastern elements such as filigree, dragons and phoenixes, and auspicious clouds. These patterns are “culturally shared” rather than “brand exclusive.”
In other words, Laopu Gold has not yet built a real brand barrier. This barrier should transform the material into a brand-exclusive symbol, so that when consumers see the product, they first think of Laopu Gold, not ancient gold.
With the development of the brand, Laopu Gold also faces the problem of breaking through its current circle—how to break through, and the risks behind breaking through. Data shows that as of June 30, 2025, the number of Laopu Gold members has reached about 480,000, an increase of 130,000 from the end of 2024, showing very rapid growth.
Approaching the ceiling means needing new expansion. If it continues to break into the high-luxury crowd, Laopu Gold needs to have more persuasive power; if it turns to break into the non-luxury crowd, the average transaction value will face a decline, affecting Laopu Gold’s brand positioning.
In recent years, with the younger demographic of gold consumers and new shifts in consumer market aesthetics, ancient gold has ushered in a larger consumer market space. Statistics from the World Gold Council show that in 2023, ancient gold jewelry accounted for 35% of the total domestic gold jewelry consumption, becoming the second largest sub-category of gold jewelry after ordinary pure gold jewelry.
Young people have become the “number one fans” of ancient gold. The “2024 China Gold Jewelry Retail Market Insight Report” mentions that young people aged 18 to 34 contributed more than one-third of gold jewelry sales, especially ancient gold and hard pure gold products. Facing the market opportunity of ancient gold, with many peers rushing in, how much growth space can Laopu Gold still hold onto?
The future may depend on how Laopu Gold maintains its own barriers and transforms its craftsmanship advantages into irreplicable brand symbols. Of course, the surge in performance in the first half of 2025 has once again confirmed Laopu Gold’s “celebration” strength and has also left a strong mark in the gold jewelry track.