The all-important holiday sales period has come and gone once again. Australia’s indomitable jewellery industry finds itself back at work, facing what promises to be a consequential year.
The past year was shaped by many of the industry’s perennial etherial forces, whether it be shifting consumer expectations, the increasing influence of technology on shopping, and intensifying competition. These factors continue to reshape how jewellery is marketed, sold, and valued, and there are no signs of it easing.
Perhaps the most telling indication of this was the collapse of Shhh Secrets in December last year.
Having weathered the 2008 global financial crisis and the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 23-store jewellery chain, formed in 2000, was sold to overseas interests who aim to re-capitalise the business.
Every cloud has a silver lining! Around the same time, another overseas jewellery retailer declared that it has its eyes on Australia.
The retail jewellery behemoth Chow Tai Fook announced plans to open its first store in Australia later this year. It operates more than 5,000 stores globally and has detailed plans to expand its business beyond Hong Kong and China.
It will be intriguing to watch how these plans unfold for several reasons.
The first will be how ‘typical Aussies’ take to the distinctly Chinese name and branding - Chow Tai Fook. One would assume that the company will, eventually, go head-to-head with Michael Hill Jewellers and Prouds.
You see, it’s not as if Australia has a shortage of jewellery chain stores and, as our State of the Industry Report detailed, the great majority congregate their operations in shopping centres.
And, again, it’s not as if Australia’s shopping centres have a shortage of jewellery chain stores.
Think about it: Chow Tai Fook was founded in 1929, has more than 20,000 employees, and operates around 90 stores in Hong Kong alone, so it would seem unlikely the company aims to open a casual "handful of shops’.
The rollout of store locations will likely take a ‘scientific approach’ that mirrors the existing demographics of other major chain stores.
Said another way, if the entry of a new competitor into any market does not, or cannot, expand the market, potentially through product differentiation, then it stands to reason the outcome must be
the conquest of sales from its rivals.
Jeweller will be watching closely how Chow Tai Fook enters the retail jewellery market and where it chooses to locate stores.
It goes without saying that the first stores would most likely open in Chinese-populated suburbs such as Sydney’s Chatswood and Melbourne’s Doncaster and Box Hill.
However, that will mean it is competing more with independent jewellery stores owned by existing Asia-focused operators rather than with the likes of Prouds, Michael Hill Jewellers and Angus & Coote, which already serve the demographic.
The true test for Chow Tai Fook will be once it has ‘covered’ the shopping centres in these suburbs, and the only areas for expansion are into ‘suburban Australia’. Stay tuned!
Another story that shows no sign of disappearing is the rise of so-called ‘ghost stores’ — online retail scams designed to deceive consumers by posing as legitimate Australian businesses.
Over the past year, Jeweller has reported extensively on these troubling practices, highlighting the damage these crooks inflict on consumer trust and the reputations of genuine, hard-working retailers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued multiple public warnings after receiving hundreds of complaints about such operators. For legitimate jewellery retailers, the threat
goes beyond lost sales.
Ghost stores can siphon traffic through paid search advertising, mimic branding, and undermine confidence in online jewellery purchasing at a time when many independents are investing in
digital platforms.
Ongoing vigilance and proactive customer education will be essential as this deceptive practice continues to evolve.
Diamonds, meanwhile, will undoubtedly once again sit at the centre of one of the industry’s most enduring debates.
Jeweller’s Great Diamond Debate III, published in December, revisited the tensions between natural and lab-created diamonds, drawing on new data and a wide range of industry voices.
The issue highlighted just how much the market has shifted since the original debates in 2018 and 2019 — and how many questions remain unanswered.
Beyond products and pricing, the industry continues to grapple with structural challenges. None is more pressing than the shortage of skilled tradespeople. Over the past decade, few initiatives have been as significant as the coordinated efforts of Nationwide Jewellers, Showcase Jewellers and the Independent Jewellers Collective to address the apprentice pipeline.
The apprenticeship initiative gathered momentum throughout 2025, with Jeweller reporting regularly on developments, including a favourable government announcement in January.
However, the response that followed exposed uncomfortable tensions within industry representation. A public statement released by the Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA) the following day mirrored much of the existing reporting, yet notably omitted any acknowledgment of the buying groups whose efforts had driven the campaign.
In the absence of consultation or explanation, the statement raised questions about attribution, engagement and leadership.
While the buying groups have since moved to involve the JAA constructively, the episode highlighted deeper concerns about accountability and the role of industry bodies in supporting, rather than claiming, progress initiated elsewhere.
Taken together, these themes point to an industry at a crossroads. Whether this becomes a year of meaningful progress, reform, and unity, or another exercise in missed opportunity, will depend largely on the choices made now.
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