Edge counts August jewelry sales up 5%, units down 8%
The average retail sale rose 14% against August 2025. Diamond jewelry carried the month, its dollars up 8% on 9% fewer units, while sterling silver and alternative metals lost both.
By The Counter Desk
What changed
Fewer pieces, more money. Independent US jewellers took 5% more in August than a year earlier on 8% fewer units, so the average retail sale rose 14%. Every category sold fewer pieces.
What it means
- If you restock for the holidays: buy fewer, dearer pieces. The unit count is falling in every category.
- If you sell silver: dollars fell 5% while units fell 19%. Price is carrying the line.
- What this is not: a national statistic. It is one aggregator's store panel.
Key figures
| Gross salesAugust, year on year | +5% |
|---|---|
| Units soldAugust, year on year | −8% |
| Average saleagainst August 2025 | +14% |
| Silver unitsthe worst category | −19% |
Source: Edge Retail Academy, August 2026 against August 2025 - reported by JCK, 3 September 2026
Price is doing all the work
Every category shrank. Units fell in all three categories Edge reports, from 9% in diamonds to 19% in silver. Dollars rose in two of the three.
The ticket did it. The average retail sale rose 14% across the counter, and by 18% in diamond jewellery. That gain is what turned an 8% unit fall into a 5% dollar gain.
| Category | Dollars | Units | Average sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| All jewellery | +5% | −8% | +14% |
| Diamond jewellery | +8% | −9% | +18% |
| Coloured stones and pearls | +4% | −14% | +21% |
| Sterling silver and alternative metals | −5% | −19% | +17% |
Source. Edge Retail Academy, reported by JCK, 3 September 2026.
The panel. is described as thousands of independent US retailers; no store count is published.
Average sale. is Edge's own measure, not dollars divided by units.
Silver is the tell
One category fell. Sterling silver and alternative metals lost 5% of dollars on 19% fewer units, the only line where price could not cover the volume.
The entry buyer left. Silver is where a first-time or gift buyer enters the store. A 19% unit fall there is a footfall signal, not a margin one.
What the aggregate hides
Coloured stones held. Coloured stones and pearls took 4% more money on 14% fewer units, the largest average-sale gain in the table at 21%.
What to watch
- Early OctEdge's September figures, for whether the unit fall steepens before the quarter.
- Mid-OctUS Census advance retail sales for jewellery, as an independent read on the same months.
- Nov-DecWhether a 14% ticket gain survives a holiday season of discounting.
The story so far
- Up nine percentUS jewellery revenue rose on a far larger ticket gain.
- $2,238 an orderBrilliant Earth bought profit back on 2.1% fewer orders.
Go deeper
What would change this call
A September in which units stop falling while the average sale holds. That would show the ticket gain is mix and not substitution, and the reading that fewer customers are buying dearer goods would not hold.
What the Edge panel measures
Edge Retail Academy aggregates point-of-sale data from independent United States jewellers running its store system, and reports month-on-month change against the same month a year earlier. It is a panel, not a census: it excludes chains, online-only sellers and any independent not on the system, and its composition can change between months as stores join or leave. Its average retail sale is reported directly from transaction records rather than derived by dividing reported dollars by reported units.
Method
All percentages are Edge Retail Academy's as reported by JCK on 3 September 2026, comparing August 2026 with August 2025. No store count, panel size or dollar total is published in that report, so none is stated here. Carat Capital has not divided the reported dollar change by the reported unit change to derive the average sale, because Edge reports that measure separately and the two are not arithmetically consistent with each other in a panel whose composition can shift. Carat Capital's prior reading, published 26 July 2026, covered the first half of 2026 and the month of June; this covers August, a different period from the same source family.