Jewellers are braced for the blow to their sales that comes once every four years – namely, the World Cup.
Retailers across the UK are gearing themselves up for the start of summer – BBQs, Hawaiian shirts, and factor 50 are all at the ready. A great many businesses are also preparing for the added boost that only comes around every four years, but invariably leaves off-licences, supermarkets, TV shops and bookmakers laughing all the way to the bank and then home again; the World Cup. Figures suggest that football fans will spend as much as £56 extra each on beer, food and TVs for the tournament.
However, not all businesses are making extra room in the tills; jewellers across the UK are expecting a significant dip in sales over the next four weeks, as the World Cup is set to bring about the usual fall in engagement ring purchases, as men ditch plans of a romantic proposal in favour of a six hour daily football shift.
Utilising figures measured over the 2010 World Cup and 2012 Euro tournament, Mayfair based jeweller 77diamonds.com have estimated that engagement rings in particular could see sales fall as much as 70% over the tournament. It is not difficult to explain this recurrent phenomenon, which strangely coincides with major football tournaments; boyfriends are ditching their plans of a romantic summer proposal, and swapping it for four weeks of football gluttony. Yet it’s not all doom and gloom for jewellers; engagement ring sales increased significantly in the weeks either side of the June 2012 tournament, largely making up for the mid-month lull.
Clearly romance is not completely dead; instead countless men will be putting off buying their engagement ring until they can give it their undivided attention – with no rush to get home and no distractions from making the perfect choice. With such careful attention going into choosing a ring, it would be a wise move to protect that decision by properly insuring your ring. With all those rings sitting waiting for the World Cup to be over before it’s time to “pop-the-question”, not taking out good quality ring engagement ring insurance would certainly be a cause for concern.
