In this segment of "Industry Focus" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on Dec. 1, Fool senior analyst Asit Sharma and contributor Emily Flippen chat about where Brilliant Earth (BRLT -4.31%) fits into the global jewelry business.
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Asit Sharma: Having said that, fast-growing market, let's talk about this market is huge, $300 billion globally, $61 billion, or about a fifth of that is in the United States where the business model so far is concentrated. Emily, you pointed out to me that this is such a fragmented market, it reminds me of the used car market. There's no global player with more than a 4% market share.
Emily Flippen: If I have to be honest here, this was something that I thought was missing from Brilliant Earth's S-1. I really do believe in the size of the global jewelry market, which is what they define here.
We're not just talking engagement rings, we are talking all fine jewelry, but a lot of the demographic information they pointed out wasn't really the information that I was looking for. They noted that millennials, especially younger consumers, are more likely to care about things like where their gems are sourced from, which is wonderful.
However, they didn't point out how that has changed over time in terms of demand and I've seen a few independent reports not provided by Brilliant Earth that have suggested demand for things like diamond engagement rings have actually gone down in favor of other investments, whether it'd be other types of jewelry. Oftentimes, vacations, bigger honeymoon in lieu of a fancy engagement ring.
That's one thing that I think leaves me scratching my head a little bit about the size of this market. Jewelry is growing, but when people think of Brilliant Earth they think engagement rings, and I'm not sure about how the trends for engagement rings will continue to change over time.
Sharma: This is something else that we didn't get from the S-1. What about the stickiness of the customer? I love my engagement ring, and then 5-7 years later, or even 10-years later, of course, this company hasn't been around so long would be interesting in the next decade to track this.
What about that next ring where you have a small anniversary and then you do go in for the $500 range to buy not the person who chose the engagement ring, but the partner. The partner says that I want to surprise my beloved with a really cool ring and so they have this repeat experience.
It's a long-term thing to track. I can understand why you wouldn't get those, that along with the extension into other gemstones, maybe one of these offsets, but I think in talking about the market, this is something important they left out.
Maybe it's because we're used to seeing companies just try to put their best foot forward and walk a fine line between disclosing the necessary risks that the SEC requires them to disclose, and then talking up the advantages without giving the completest picture on where the industry might be going.
But I think this is something to definitely keep in mind, Emily, for anyone who makes investments, try to think through those risk factors over the next, 10 years or so.
