On October 16, the World Gold Council released its "2026 China Gold Jewellery Retail Market Insights" report.
Against the backdrop of China's economic transition between old and new growth drivers and accumulating positive signs of recovery, the gold jewellery market has also entered a period of adjustment.
In the first half of 2026, China's gold jewellery demand in tonnage terms fell 30% year-on-year, but consumer spending rose 5% year-on-year to RMB 144 billion, marking the second-highest first-half consumption scale in history and displaying a "lower volume, stable value" pattern.
Under high gold prices, the way consumers purchase gold has changed, but their interest in buying has not diminished.
With gold prices elevated, what is more worth discussing than "whether consumers will still buy" is why they buy and how they buy.
Less gold bought by weight, but spending has not fallen
High gold prices have changed the way consumers buy gold, but have not changed their interest in the metal.
In the first half of 2026, China's gold jewellery demand in tonnage terms declined 30% year-on-year, while consumer spending rose 5% year-on-year to RMB 144 billion, the second-highest first-half gold jewellery consumption on record.
This shows that with relatively stable budgets, although consumers are choosing lighter-weight gold jewellery, their enthusiasm for gold jewellery consumption has not waned, thereby pushing up total spending.
Gold jewellery spending remains at a high level.
In the current stage of China's economic transformation, combined with the gold VAT reform, investment demand for gold and consumer demand for gold jewellery have become more differentiated, and it is not surprising that investment demand is stronger than gold jewellery consumption.
Gold jewellery consumption firmly holds the top position among jewellery categories.
Gold jewellery remains the most core revenue source for domestic retailers.
The industry continues to innovate and iterate, launching gold jewellery products with novel designs, and Chinese consumers' preference for and spending on gold jewellery remains solid.
However, due to high gold prices and cost pressures from the gold VAT reform being passed down to downstream consumers, gold jewellery's market dominance has weakened slightly.
The gold VAT reform has had the most obvious impact on jewellery retailers, mainly non-SGE member entities' physical gold investment business.
The new VAT policy implemented in November 2025 stipulates that gold investment products sold through non-member channels of the Shanghai Gold Exchange will incur an additional tax burden of approximately 13%.
The vast majority of domestic jewellery retailers use a franchise model and are non-member entities, and many merchants have therefore reduced or even stopped gold bar sales.
In addition, one chart data point is worth noting: in the first half of 2026, silver jewellery's revenue contribution reached 13%, and silver jewellery products have now become an important component of retailers' revenue.
Gold still held the top position among jewellery categories in 2026.
Revenue contribution by category for Chinese gold jewellery retailers in the first half of 2026 (by value).
More "self-rewarding": gold is moving from "life's big events" into "daily life"
Self-purchase-driven consumption continues to strengthen its leading role in gold jewellery consumption, surpassing traditional wedding scenarios.
Surveys show that consumption in "self-purchase" scenarios remains the primary driver of domestic gold jewellery consumption.
44% of retailers reported that customers buy gold jewellery for self-reward purposes.
This deepening trend is the most important structural change in China's gold jewellery market: gold jewellery consumption has shifted from being driven by traditional ceremonial occasions to being emotion-driven.
Today, gold jewellery is increasingly regarded as an optional consumer good that showcases lifestyle, rather than merely an item with ceremonial value.
This shift also explains why China's gold jewellery demand is becoming increasingly cyclical: gift-giving and purchasing demand in wedding and other traditional scenarios is relatively stable; while self-purchase-driven consumption is closely related to personal emotions, self-expression, consumer confidence and income expectations.
This means that, especially after the implementation of the VAT reform, consumers will comprehensively weigh gold's value-preservation attributes alongside the personal and emotional expression value carried by the jewellery when choosing gold jewellery.
Self-purchase-driven consumption continues to drive gold jewellery purchases.
Share of retailers (%) who consider each consumption scenario key to revenue in the first half of 2026.
More refined: gold jewellery is becoming "lighter" but design and craftsmanship are becoming "heavier"
Looking more closely at category performance, ancient-method gold and hard pure gold remained the most resilient product categories, supporting overall store revenue.
In 2026, ancient-method gold and hard pure gold outperformed other gold categories for the fourth consecutive year.
Surveys show that small-piece gold jewellery with exquisite design, light volume and either fashionable appeal or rich cultural elements has become a core revenue pillar for jewellers.
Despite rising costs, consumers still favour 24K pure gold, preferring products that balance value for money, design aesthetics and gold's value-preservation attributes.
Therefore, retailers that focus on these categories can better mitigate the impact of high gold prices and weakening non-essential consumption.
At the same time, China's gold jewellery market shows a polarised pattern: on the one hand, lightweight ancient-method gold and hard pure gold products are welcomed by the market for their higher cost-effectiveness.
On the other hand, large-weight, high-end handcrafted ancient-method gold jewellery remains popular among high-net-worth consumer groups.
This market polarisation may be another driving factor behind ancient-method gold jewellery outperforming other categories.
Ancient-method gold and hard pure gold categories outperformed other categories.
Share of retailers (%) achieving year-on-year sales growth in the first half of 2026.
Most retailers plan to expand their layout of lightweight, high-gross-margin products.
Facing high gold prices and macroeconomic pressure, retailers continue to adjust product strategies, with cost-effectiveness still the core consideration.
More than 40% of retailers plan to increase the stocking share of products under 5 grams; 47% intend to expand supply of products in the 5–10 gram range.
Overall, the share of retailers favouring lightweight products under 10 grams has risen significantly from 60% in 2025, highlighting the industry's continued shift toward lightweight products.
This shows that lightweighting has evolved from a temporary measure to cope with market changes into a structural product strategy.
It is worth noting that most retailers are not simply creating light, low-priced products.
62% of retailers plan to increase products with high processing fees, which usually have higher gross margin potential and place more emphasis on design and craftsmanship.
The remaining merchants prioritise expanding low-processing-fee products to speed up inventory turnover, but at the cost of some profit.
This strategic divergence once again confirms the earlier point: the market's polarisation is becoming increasingly evident.
Younger: young people have not left gold, they have just redefined gold consumption
The hard pure gold consumer group is clearly younger.
Surveys show that the average age of hard pure gold buyers is lower than that of the overall gold jewellery consumer group.
Hard pure gold is affordable in cost, fashionable in design, and can be creatively paired with enamel, diamonds and other materials, making it highly suitable for young consumers who pursue self-expression and value practicality for daily wear.
It is worth noting that the 18–34 age group remains the core pillar of gold jewellery consumption.
This also reflects a major mainstream trend among young people.
Accenture's "2026 China Consumer Insights" points out that Gen Z consumers are increasingly dividing their consumption and emotional needs into two separate "accounts": one to satisfy emotional value, and the other to serve long-term asset security.
The hard pure gold consumer group is generally younger.
Question: By gold jewellery category, what are the customer age ranges?
Industry confidence remains strong: slowing, diverging, but not "turning around"
A considerable proportion of merchants maintained their existing inventory levels, close to the proportion of retailers destocking, indicating that the industry is making cautious adjustments rather than facing a full-scale downturn.
Retailers are reducing their gold product inventories.
Persistently high gold prices are raising capital costs, and combined with slower inventory turnover by tonnage, this has prompted many retailers to close stores, delay expansion plans or shrink their market scale.
45% of surveyed retailers said they plan to reduce gold product inventories going forward, marking the third consecutive year in which the share of retailers planning to cut inventory exceeded that of merchants planning to increase it.
But it is worth noting that more than 40% of retailers chose to keep gold inventory unchanged.
The gap between the "maintain inventory" and "destock" groups is small, and the industry situation is far from recession level.
In our view, the signal this releases is more one of "cautious adjustment" rather than "full-scale retreat."
Some retailers are cutting inventory but a similar proportion are keeping it unchanged.
Question: How do you plan to adjust gold product inventory size going forward?
Compared with other jewellery categories, retailers are more positive on gold.
Market confidence is more important than gold itself.
Especially at present, many retailers are contracting their businesses, and weak consumer demand further amplifies industry concerns about the outlook.
Fortunately, more than one-third of retailers still believe gold product sales are likely to recover, the highest proportion among all jewellery categories, although the share has declined from earlier surveys.
It is worth noting that retailers' positive expectations for silver jewellery ranked second.
Retailers' confidence in various gold categories broadly matches recent sales performance: ancient-method gold has the highest share of optimistic expectations, with more than one-third of respondents bullish on its sales prospects, followed closely by hard pure gold.
Survey results show that market recovery will be structural in nature, with growth driven by differentiated categories that balance emotional value, self-expression and cost-effectiveness.
Retailers remain bullish on gold jewellery.
Share of surveyed retailers agreeing with each statement.
Demand may be delayed, but it has not disappeared
More than 60% of retailers believe consumers are merely postponing purchases rather than abandoning them, and that demand will return.
Retailers' confidence in the gold jewellery market is also reflected in their interpretation of the recent consumption slowdown.
More than 60% of retailers believe that, in the face of this rare surge in gold prices, many consumers are merely delaying purchases rather than giving them up.
Retailers expect that after consumers adjust their price expectations and adapt to current gold price levels, this demand will return.
This view is consistent with our analysis conclusion that gold jewellery demand has a lagged response to gold prices.
Research finds that a sharp rise in gold prices significantly suppresses demand in the current quarter, as consumers postpone purchases, reduce the weight they buy, or shift to lower-priced products.
But as consumers readjust budgets and price expectations, this pressure will gradually fade.
In the long run, continued gold price increases may even provide support, reinforcing gold's inherent value-preservation attributes and prompting consumers to buy ahead in anticipation of further price gains.
The impact of gold prices on China's gold jewellery demand gradually fades over time.
Correlation between quarterly gold price changes and gold jewellery demand at different lag periods.
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