What Jewelry Wholesalers Should Be Doing in December—While Retailers Are Busy Selling

December is a funny month in the jewelry industry.

Retailers are sprinting. They’re deep in the holiday rush—selling, shipping, wrapping, reordering “whatever’s left,” and answering a hundred versions of “Can I get this by Friday?”

Wholesalers, on the other hand, have a different reality: December is planning season. It’s when you set yourself up to win Q1—while everyone else is still counting December receipts.

And in 2025, that matters more than usual. The National Retail Federation expects US holiday sales to surpass $1 trillion for the first time in 2025 (Nov–Dec). That scale means two things for wholesalers:

1. Retailers are creating massive signals (sell-through, returns, size preferences, price bands).
2. Many of them won’t have time to communicate cleanly until January.

So if you’re a jewelry wholesaler and you want Q1 to be smooth, profitable, and predictable, you don’t wait for retailers to come to you. You use December to get ahead of demand, pricing, inventory, and your operational engine.

Here’s what smart wholesalers should be doing right now.

1) Turn retail chaos into Q1 demand intelligence (before January arrives)

Retailers are too busy selling to send you neat insights. That’s your job.

December should be your signal-capture window:

• What’s selling out (fast)
• What’s being discounted (slow)
• Which price bands are moving
• Which metals/stones are spiking
• Which categories are driving add-ons (studs + pendants, stacking rings, tennis styles)

This matters because jewelry demand isn’t just “up” or “down.” It’s shifting. The US jewelry market was valued around $78.4B in 2024 and is forecast to grow toward roughly $97.6B by 2030 in some industry estimates. But that growth doesn’t distribute evenly across product types or price tiers.

December action: build a “Holiday 2025 Readout” for your team by Dec 20:

• Top 25 SKUs/styles by velocity
• Top 10 “replacement” SKUs (what retailers reorder mid-season)
• Top 10 losers (avoid overbuying in Q1)
• Price band mix (under $250 / $250–$750 / $750+)

If you run wholesale jewelry software or a jewelry ERP for wholesalers (like Luxare by Diaspark supports across the supply chain), this should be a dashboard, not a spreadsheet scramble.

2) Lock in Q1 inventory with a “fast-fill” strategy, not a “big buy” strategy

In Q1, retailers want two things that conflict:

• Freshness (newness)
• Low risk (don’t overbuy)

That’s why wholesalers win Q1 by building a fast-fill program:

• Smaller initial buys for retailers
• Guaranteed replenishment windows
• Clear lead times
• Clean substitutions when items run out

Retailers don’t want “a catalog.” They want: “What can you replenish quickly if a style hits?”

December action:

• Identify your Q1 “core replenishment pool”
• Set reorder points and safety stock on your top movers
• Pre-negotiate production slots or supplier allocations

This becomes even more important in an environment where input prices can swing and constrain purchasing decisions. Gold has been hitting repeated record highs in 2025, driven by macro uncertainty and demand—Reuters reported gold conquering $3,500/oz and logging dozens of record highs earlier in 2025. Reuters+1 That volatility pushes retailers to be cautious—and pushes wholesalers to be ready.

3) Rebuild your pricing playbook for a volatile cost environment

If your pricing updates are slow, Q1 becomes painful:

• You quote one price
• Costs move (metal, freight, labor)
• You either eat margin or re-quote
• Retailers lose confidence

And this isn’t theoretical: the Bank for International Settlements highlighted how unusual it is to see both gold and stocks surging in “bubble territory,” noting gold’s steep rise in 2025. That kind of market environment is exactly where pricing discipline matters.

December action:

• Create pricing rules by product type (metal-heavy vs design-heavy)
• Build a “price protection” policy you can explain in one sentence
• Separate price lists for:
  • immediate ship inventory
  • made-to-order
  • memo/consignment
• Prepare retailer talking points: “Here’s how we price when gold moves.”

If you’re running jewelry ERP for wholesalers, this should be automated: metal surcharge logic, updated cost inputs, and margin guardrails.

4) Make Q1 easier for retailers by packaging your offer like a retailer needs it

Retailers in Q1 aren’t just “reordering.” They’re planning:

• Valentine’s Day (big)
• Spring gifting (graduations, Mother’s Day lead-up)
• Bridal resets
• Inventory cleanup after holiday returns

So don’t just send them “new arrivals.” Send them ready-made Q1 plays:

• Valentine’s gifting set (pendants, studs, heart motifs, initials, lab-grown staples)
• Under-$250 replenishment kit (fast giftables, high turns)
• Bridal basics kit (classic solitaires, bands, matching sets)
• Refresh & trade-up kit (tennis looks, stackable rings, modern hoops)

Your goal is to reduce the retailer’s cognitive load. In January, they’re exhausted. If your assortment arrives as a “decision,” you’ll win more POs.

December action:

• Build 3–5 Q1 “kits” with:
  • SKU list + wholesale pricing
  • suggested retail pricing guidance
  • merchandising photos
  • reorder lead times
  • best/better/good tiers

This is where wholesale jewelry software earns its keep: reuse templates, generate catalogs fast, and track which kits convert.

5) Plan for the returns and exchanges wave (and turn it into margin)

Retailers will deal with holiday returns in late December and January. Wholesalers can either:

• get surprised by it, or
• create systems to profit from it

December action:

• Offer a clear January exchange program:
  • swap slow movers for faster Q1 styles (with rules)
• Create a “refurbish & relaunch” process:
  • repolish, re-tag, repackage returned goods quickly
• Prepare your secondary channel strategy:
  • outlet, bundles, online flash, or B2B clearance

This protects your mainline assortment from being polluted by slow inventory.

And it’s not just about product returns—watch and jewelry servicing demand also spikes after the holidays (sizing, repairs, bracelet adjustments). If you support retailers with parts (clasps, findings, chains, watch straps), Q1 service demand can become a steady wholesale lane.

6) Strengthen retailer relationships while they’re busy (this is the sneaky advantage)

Retailers don’t have time for long calls in December. But they do notice who makes life easier.

December action: send “helpful, not salesy” touchpoints:

• A one-page Q1 reorder cheat sheet
• A Valentine’s merchandising mini-kit
• A “best sellers we can replenish fast” list
• A lead-time calendar for January shipments

Tie it to real macro context:

• Holiday demand is huge (NRF expects record scale).
• Costs are volatile (gold has been in record territory).
• Retailers want speed and lower risk in Q1.

You become the wholesaler who “gets it.”

7) Use December to fix your operations (because Q1 punishes weak ops)

Q1 is where operational issues show up as lost business:

• wrong shipments
• missing stones or parts
• invoicing errors
• delayed ETAs
• unclear order status

December is your window to tighten the machine:

• clean your item master data (metal, stone type, size, pricing)
• standardize product naming
• organize parts inventory
• enforce consistent lead times
• build retailer-facing order status updates

This is exactly why wholesalers increasingly adopt jewelry ERP for wholesalers and wholesale jewelry software that supports:

• order management
• inventory control
• pricing consistency
• customer history
• reporting by customer and SKU

Luxare by Diaspark sits in that ecosystem across retailers/wholesalers, so the “December upgrades” you make can carry directly into faster Q1 fulfillment and cleaner retailer experiences.

8) Build your Q1 demand plan around “value + confidence” categories

Even with record holiday sales projected, shoppers are still value-aware. That trickles back to wholesalers as Q1 demand.

For Q1 2026, wholesalers should be ready with:

• fast giftables (studs, pendants, chains)
• stackables and “buildable” collections
• lab-grown staples (if you carry them—growth projections remain strong)
• repair/service-adjacent parts (clasps, chains, watch bands)

Retailers will buy what they can:

• sell quickly
• replenish confidently
• price clearly

The December takeaway for wholesalers

Retailers use December to sell.
Wholesalers should use December to prepare the runway.

If you do these eight things well—capture demand signals, build fast-fill inventory, update pricing rules, package Q1 kits, plan for returns, strengthen relationships, fix ops, and stock value-forward categories—you’ll walk into January with momentum instead of surprises.

Because the best time to plan Q1 is when everyone else is too busy to.

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