Gold climbed above $5,100 an ounce in January 2026 before falling back to around $4,600 by late March, making it harder than ever for jewelers to price inventory and plan purchases.
At the same time, lab-grown diamonds now account for more than half of engagement ring center stones sold in the U.S., up from about 40% in 2019.
In July, a new round of tariffs affecting imports from 60 countries took effect, with rates of 10–12.5% that exempt precious metals but not lab-grown diamonds.
These changes are shaping how jewelry stores buy, price, and sell products.
So, what does selling jewelry in 2026 look like? Some parts of the business have changed significantly. Others are just as important as they’ve always been.
Here’s what has changed and what hasn’t.
What’s Changed About Selling Jewelry in 2026
Here’s where the ground has moved under jewelry retailers this year.
Omnichannel Jewelry Selling Is Now Essential
Social media is influencing what customers ask for in 90% of jewelry stores, but 94% still sell almost exclusively face-to-face.
Customers now research on Instagram, price-check on your website, and still want to try the piece on in the case… often in the same afternoon.
A jewelry store with a static website and a disconnected point of sale (POS) system is losing sales before the customer walks in because the customer has already decided to shop elsewhere.
Retailers running their POS and e-commerce off the same inventory feed are the ones who can tell a customer “Yes, we have that in stock” without hesitation.
Lab-Grown Diamonds Are No Longer Just a Trend
This isn’t a category retailers are still deciding whether to carry.
Lab-grown diamonds crossed the 50% mark for U.S. engagement ring center stones in 2024, and unit sales keep growing faster than dollar sales — meaning more customers, not just bigger baskets.
Plus, three out of four bridal stores expect lab-grown diamonds to account for more than half of their engagement ring sales this year. The conversation has shifted from “Should we sell lab-grown diamonds?” to “How do we price and merchandise them well?”
Related Read: How To Sell Lab-Grown Diamonds: Steps & Strategies
Customer Payment Expectations Have Changed
Contactless payments, buy now, pay later (BNPL), and layaway used to be nice extras. Now customers expect them, especially on higher-ticket pieces where the decision to buy and the decision to pay in full are two separate moments.
A customer who loves a $2,000 ring but balks at paying for it in one swipe isn’t a lost sale, but rather a sale that needs a payment plan.
Jewelry retailers with flexible, built-in payment options at the register are turning hesitation into sales.
Gen Z Is Changing Fine Jewelry Buying
This is the shift that catches a lot of jewelry stores off guard.
Gen Z is self-purchasing earlier, researching harder, and expecting payment flexibility as the standard.
They’re also the generation most likely to find your store through social media or a video, not by walking past your window. If you write these customers off because they seem young or because they’re not shopping for a big milestone yet, you’re handing the next decade of customers to whoever else shows up where they’re already looking.
Gold Prices & Tariffs Are Reshaping Jewelry Pricing
Gold prices are reshaping how people shop, according to 84% of jewelry stores.
Between gold price swings and new tariffs, the old approach — set a price, leave it — doesn’t hold anymore.
This reality has also pushed more jewelry stores toward tighter cash flow forecasting and supplier diversification so a single gold spike doesn’t blow up a quarter.
Explaining a price increase, rather than just swapping the tag, protects your margin and your customer’s trust.
What Hasn’t Changed About Selling Jewelry in 2026
Here’s what’s held steady no matter how much retail technology shifts.
Trust Still Drives Jewelry Sales
No amount of AR try-ons or 360-degree product videos replaces the moment a customer sits across the counter from someone who knows the difference between a good stone and a great one.
Online research gets a customer to your door, but it doesn’t close a $3,000 sale — a person does.
Craftsmanship Still Sets Independent Jewelry Stores Apart
In an interview with Jewel360, Meghan Proctor of Hubbell Proctor Design put it well, describing a Sweet 16 gift she made from a family’s own gold.
She cast the ring in front of the customer’s daughter, engraved the initials while they watched, and the family came back the next year for a sibling’s piece made the same way.
That kind of moment, watching your own family gold become a ring in front of you, is precisely what an e-commerce listing can’t replicate. It’s also why successful jewelry stores today are the ones leaning harder into visible craft.
Related Read: Custom Jewelry Order Management: Process, Tips, & Solutions
Milestone Purchases Continue To Drive Jewelry Sales
Engagements, anniversaries, graduations, a Sweet 16 — the biggest sales in your store still come down to a date on someone’s calendar. Gen Z buying more fine jewelry doesn’t change that — it’s just added another reason people buy on top of it.
Milestones are still what the business runs on.
Customer Relationships Still Matter More Than Transactions
Jewelry stores with strong repeat business remember the details: She got her mother’s ring resized here in 2019, his anniversary falls in June.
That memory used to live in a jeweler’s head.
Now it lives in a CRM built for jewelry stores, but the instinct behind it — treat every sale as the start of a relationship, not the end of one — hasn’t changed at all.
How Jewel360 Helps Jewelry Stores Sell More Jewelry in 2026
A lot has changed in the jewelry industry — the tools, the payment options, even the cost of gold.
But the reason someone buys a piece of jewelry hasn’t: a milestone, a person they trust, a piece they can’t find anywhere else.
That’s what Jewel360 is made for. POS, e-commerce, payments, and CRM made specifically for jewelry retailers — so the things covered above (selling across channels, offering payment flexibility, keeping long-term customer relationships) come built in.
Build and Price your POS system today. All you need to do is choose your ideal features and see what it costs.
