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New York--The holiday shopping season doesn’t have to end on Christmas, as some jewelers have seen in the last week. Gift card redeemers, self-purchasers and couples looking for the perfect engagement ring have kept many stores busy after the holidays, with snow even factoring in for one jeweler.

National Jeweler publishes weekly holiday sales roundups throughout the holiday season. This is the eighth report tracking the 2011 holiday season.

NORTHEAST
“Sales continued just like it was Christmas,” reports Daniel Niebauer, owner of Ralph Miller Jewelers & Gallery in Erie, Pa.

The jeweler said he usually loses four to six shopping days in December due to winter weather, but the lack of sub-freezing temperatures and snowstorms at the end of 2011 paved the way for customers.

Shoppers included gift card redeemers and people who wanted to upgrade their Christmas gifts, Niebauer said. He sold numerous large diamond items, and completely sold out of 1-carat diamond earrings.

“I think people were just tired of saving and wanted just a little bit of life before going on a hiatus from spending,” he said.

One detail the jeweler noted about after-Christmas shopping was that most customers were paying with credit or debit cards versus cash.

“It tells me that people have some big bills to pay in the coming months,” Niebauer said.

MIDWEST
After enjoying a “very good” Christmas, the last week of December was fairly standard at Anshus Jewelers in Menomonie, Wis., said owner John Anshus.

The store had a few returns and made a few sales, including to customers who had been given gift cards this holiday season. Anshus said the store sold a record number of gift cards this year.

All in all, though, the week after Christmas was on par with the same week in 2010.

“I think you see more activity (during the last week of December) in stores that are having sales to get rid of their inventory,” Anshus said.

Gene Gragg said foot traffic was up at his store, Metal Works Fine Jewelry in Yorktown, Ind., during the last week of December. While the store had more customers coming through the door than they did during this week last year, those customers were spending less.

The majority of sales rang in at less than $1,000.

“It was about what we expected. The economy is still struggling around here,” Gragg said, noting that overall, he was happy with the holiday season. 

SOUTH CENTRAL
Sales in the last week of December were up slightly year-over-year for Jeff Fox, owner of Barnes Jewelry in Amarillo, Texas.

While gift cards are not a big seller for the store, customers--perhaps with gifted Christmas cash in their pockets--came in “still wanting to buy,” he said.

As a whole, December 2011 mirrored December 2010, which was a solid month for the store.

In Oklahoma City, Valerie Naifeh of Naifeh Fine Jewelry said the last week of December was “fantastic” for her store.

A number of sales that they had been working on but hadn’t closed before Christmas came through, including gifts for self-purchasers who didn’t necessarily need the present to be wrapped and under the tree on the morning of Dec. 25 and a couple of nice engagement ring sales.

Naifeh said the engagement customers chose to use their time off over the holidays to find the perfect ring and plan to pop the question in January or February.

“That can be fairly typical for us,” she said of the week. “But we were very happy this year.”

In addition, for the first time this year, the store offered customers who came in with a return the alternative of receiving their purchase amount plus an extra 10 percent in the form of store credit, in lieu of just getting their money back.

“We had a couple of folks take us up on that,” Naifeh said.

WEST
The “best snow in the West” contributed to a solid week after Christmas at J.C. Jewelers in Jackson, Wyo., said owner Jan Case.

While ski resorts across the country struggled due to unseasonably warm temperatures and the resulting lack of snow, skiers filed into Jackson to take advantage of the town’s relatively decent snowfall.

“The last week of the year here was good,” she said, noting that it was on par with the same week in 2010.

Mike Butterfield, of Butterfield Jewelers in Albuquerque, N.M., said sales were better in the last seven days of the month than in the previous three weeks, adding that sales in the final week of the year were up 50 percent as compared to the same time period in 2010.

He said their after-Christmas sales included a couple of engagement ring purchases that customers waited until after the holidays to make.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” he said.