Editor’s Note
This article examines a striking trend in South Korea’s jewelry market, where economic pressures are deepening a divide: demand for mid-priced items is falling sharply even as ultra-luxury foreign brands thrive. The shift reflects broader patterns of consumer polarization during uncertain times.
In the Korean jewelry market, the popularity of mid-to-low-priced brands has waned, while ultra-expensive foreign luxury jewelry has grown rapidly. Amid economic downturn, jewelry priced around 100,000 won is being shunned, while luxury items costing tens of millions of won are gaining popularity, highlighting a deepening polarization.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure on the 5th, the jewelry division sales of E-World, which operates brands like Lloyd and OST, decreased annually from 150.27458 billion won in 2019 to 72.05841 billion won. Operating profit worsened from 13.8 billion won to 286.2 million won during the same period.
Other domestic jewelry brands face similar situations. During the same period, sales of Wooreem FMG, which distributes Stonehenge and Rosemon, fell from 179.8 billion won to 112 billion won, and J.ESTINA’s sales dropped from 94.8 billion won to 74.4 billion won. Operating profit for Wooreem FMG also decreased from 13.7 billion won in 2019 to 5.6 billion won in 2024, while J.ESTINA recorded an operating loss last year. Comparing the 2024 sales of three major domestic jewelry brand companies to their 2019 figures shows a significant contraction: △E-World (Jewelry Division) -52% △Wooreem FMG -38% △J.ESTINA -21.5%.
In contrast, the growth of ultra-luxury jewelry brands has been remarkably steep. According to sales growth rates from 2019 to 2024 compiled by market research firm Euromonitor, Boucheron showed the highest increase at 839.9%. Boucheron’s Quatre Classique Small Ring, famous as a wedding ring, costs up to 10.9 million won. During the same period, sales growth rates for brands like △Chaumet 437% △Van Cleef & Arpels 100.4% △Pandora 83.6% △Louis Vuitton 75.2% △Bulgari 69.9% △Cartier 66.2% outpaced the overall Korean jewelry market growth rate of 49.9%. A Euromonitor official explained, “Foreign brands with relatively lower prices, such as Swarovski and DKNY, are also on a downward trend.”
This penetration by foreign luxury jewelry brands has led to an expansion of imported jewelry’s market share in Korea. According to the Wolgok Jewelry Industry Research Institute’s ‘Korean Jewelry Market Trends 2024’, the market share of imported jewelry, which was 17% of the total in 2020, steadily increased to 31.2% in 2024. Conversely, the market share of domestic jewelry brands decreased from 83% in 2020 to 68.8%.
analyzed Hong Hee-jeong, Senior Researcher of the Beauty & Fashion sector at Euromonitor International.