JB Insights

HKIJS, HKIDGPS attract over 81,000 buyers from across globe

Published

2 years ago

February 11, 2024

Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the 40^th HKTDC Hong Kong International Jewellery Show and 10^th HKTDC Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show gathered over 4,000 exhibitors from 44 countries and regions. The Jewellery Show concluded at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre today and the Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show closed at AsiaWorld-Expo on Saturday, marking the successful return of the “two shows, two venues” format for the first time since the pandemic.

The shows attracted some 81,000 buyers from 137 countries and regions. The Diamond, Gem & Pearl Show drew over 31,000 buyers from 125 countries and regions, while more than 49,000 buyers from 132 countries and regions joined the Jewellery Show. For the two shows together, buyers from Mainland China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States ranked top in terms of non-Hong Kong visitors, underscoring the shows’ leading world position.

Exhibitors and buyers were optimistic about a thriving jewellery market. An on-site survey of 1,435 respondents found 62.3% anticipated growth in overall sales in the next one to two years while 31.3% expected stable sales and only 6.4% predicted a decrease.

Sophia Chong, Deputy Executive Director of the HKTDC, said: “The twin jewellery shows successfully attracted buyers from around the world to return to Hong Kong, and it is very encouraging. Exhibitors stated that buyers had shown a positive sentiment on purchasing, and had connected with new clientele, including those from emerging markets, which is crucial for business growth.”

“For the upcoming exhibition peak season, the HKTDC will present some 10 business fairs next month, encompassing a wide range of industries including innovation, electronics, gifts, home products, fashion and packaging. These events will serve as platforms for buyers and suppliers to make business and connect, and in turn solidify Hong Kong’s position as a global exhibition centre and bring substantial economic benefits to the city.”

Under the hybrid EXHIBITION+ format, the twin jewellery shows combined in-person access at the venues with online negotiations via HKTDC’s Click2Match smart business-matching platform, which will be available until 11 March, and buying through hktdc.com Sourcing. The HKTDC launched the self-authentication service at this year’s twin shows, enabling buyers to verify identities and obtain electronic badges (eBadges) in advance for rapid, seamless access to venues, greatly enhancing the trade show experience. Most buyers welcomed this eBadge arrangement, including the self-authentication feature and entry arrangements.

The HKTDC surveyed exhibitors and buyers on-site, with key findings below:

Market and industry outlook

Of the respondents, 62.3% anticipated growth in overall sales in the next 12 to 24 months, 31.3% foresaw stable sales and only 6.4% expected a decrease.
On revenue, 44.4% of exhibitors expected FOB selling prices to rise this year while 69.9% believed production or sourcing costs would go up.

Product trends:

In terms of product categories, interviewees expected trendy fashion jewellery (59.5%), precious jewellery (41%) and designers’ jewellery (31.1%) to have the greatest market potential.
Karat white gold (47.3%), karat yellow gold (44.5%) and karat rose gold (24%) were the most popular precious metal products this year.
Diamond (53.3%) was the most popular gemstone, followed by ruby (28.6%) and pearl (21.5%).

Exhibitors reported higher sales than last year
Trading at the twin shows was promising. e Hong Kong exhibitor, Jessica Kwan, Director of Universal Jewellery Design Centre Limited, said: “We have been participating in the Hong Kong International Jewellery Show since its inception. Over the past 40 editions, our business grew together with the show and our jewellery products are exported worldwide today. During the fairs, we met with new buyers from Mainland China, the Philippines and the Middle East. We expect the sales turnover generated by this year’s show to increase by 20%.”

At the Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem, and Pearl Show, one of the exhibitors, Rosaria Borriello, Manager of Borriello Massimo from Italy said: “We love the Hong Kong show very much. It’s the perfect place to do business and meet customers from everywhere. Our Mediterranean red coral showcased this year has again attracted strong buyers’ interest. Customers from Mainland China, India and the Philippines are still our biggest buyers.”
From a buyer’s perspective, Nezar J. Mukhtar, Managing Director of Jamla Jewelry from Saudi Arabia, said: “The Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show draws a large number of industry players from all over the world and serves as the best sourcing platform. Talks are now underway with three exhibitors from Hong Kong and India for loose diamonds in different sizes, colours and shapes. I’ve also looked for new suppliers and expected to conclude at least US$10 million worth of business. The fair is the perfect place for business expansion.”

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The Woman Wearing The Diamond Was Never The One The Ad Was Talking To

Disha Shah, Founder & Designer, DiAi Designs Says That The Brands That Shift From “She Deserves It” to “She Chose It” Won’t Just Win Cultural Relevance – They’ll Own The Future Of Jewellery Marketing.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 11, 2026

JewelBuzz Spread The Buzz

Indian jewellery advertising has always centred the woman. She has been the face of every campaign, draped in gold, luminous at the occasion, receiving the gift with practised grace. What she rarely was, until recently, was the intended audience.

The creative language of the category was built around a genuine economic reality. For decades, the buyer in Indian fine jewellery was the patriarch, the husband, the father, the family elder making a financial decision on behalf of a woman whose purchasing autonomy was limited. Advertising followed the money. The gift reveal, the bridal close-up, the family approval shot: these were not arbitrary creative choices. They reflected who held the purse strings, and they became so embedded in the category’s visual grammar that they outlasted the conditions that created them by an entire generation.

That structural reality has now reversed. Jewellery purchases now extend beyond weddings and festivals to daily wear, driven by financially independent working women. The self-purchasing woman is no longer an emerging segment; she is the category’s fastest-growing buyer, approaching the decision differently from the buyer the industry originally designed itself around. She is not waiting for an occasion. She is not waiting for someone to present a box. She researched the piece, chose it, and bought it because she wanted it.

The advertising, for the most part, has not caught up.

Some brands are beginning to recognise this. CaratLane’s #WearYourWins movement and Tanishq’s sustained push toward the “woman as decision-maker” are meaningful steps. But what makes these campaigns commercially smart is not just cultural alignment. Research from Harvard Business School finds that women systematically provide less favourable assessments of their own performance and potential than equally performing men. This documented self-promotion gap persists even when women know they have outperformed others. Campaigns that actively celebrate female self-recognition are not just filling a creative gap. They are responding to a behavioural reality that has gone largely unaddressed in the category. The brands doing this well are not being progressive for their own sake. They are being accurate about who their buyer is and what she needs to hear.

Look at the Women’s Day 2026 campaigns across the industry. The conversation is clearly starting to pivot. Brands are finally stepping away from the usual gifting tropes and reframing jewellery as a tool for personal milestones and self-expression. But these remain exceptions. The dominant campaign language of Indian jewellery- the gesture, the reveal, the woman being seen rather than deciding- has not structurally changed.

The media mix tells the same story. Titan leaned heavily on television in FY25, with ad volume surging to 77% of its mix, a broadcast medium built for household reach rather than the individual, financially independent woman who now represents the category’s fastest-growing buyer.

Meanwhile, digitally native BlueStone achieved 50% of online jewellery ad volumes on a budget nearly ten times smaller than Titan’s. The channel that reaches the self-purchasing woman directly is delivering outsized results on a fraction of the spend. The implication for where the industry should be directing its creative attention is fairly clear.

Consider what a brief genuinely written for this buyer would look like. No occasion in the shot. No second person in the frame presents anything. The opening line is not “for the woman who deserves to be celebrated.” It is “she saw it, she wanted it, she bought it.” The product earns its place not through sentiment but through desire. The copy does not explain why she is worth it. It assumes she already knows. That is not a tonal adjustment. It is a fundamentally different creative architecture, and very few briefs in this category have been written that way.

The LGD category has a specific opportunity here that established houses do not. Without decades of legacy campaign language to protect, an independent designer in this space can build advertising from a blank page, one written entirely around the woman who is actually making the purchase. The brief does not have to accommodate inherited assumptions about who the buyer is or what she is waiting for. That is not a small advantage. In a category where the dominant creative language was built around a buyer who is no longer the one making the decision, starting without that inheritance may be the most powerful creative position available.

The woman wearing the diamond has always been visible. What is changing now is who gets to decide. The brands that build their creative around that reality will not just be more culturally relevant. They will be better positioned for every year that follows. The advertising has not caught up yet. But the buyer already has.