“How many rings of each size should I carry?” is a question every jeweller, retailer, and designer has asked themselves. It’s a complicated question that may change depending on any number of factors: the time of year, the style of the ring, etc. While HOJ doesn’t have all the answers to one of the most difficult questions ever asked, we can give you a few tips to make the decision easier.
What to Consider Before Determining How Many Rings of Each Size to Invest in
The Most Common Sizes
Women’s rings usually run 3 – 9 and men’s 7 – 13 (although there may be some sizes outside those ranges available).
Obviously, you’re going to want to stock up on the most common sizes. The average ring size is between 6 and 8 for women and 9 to 11 for men. Keep in mind these sizes are standard for Canada and the US. Different countries have different units of measurements and different averages.
Your Client Base
Do you sell to hundreds of people a year, month, day, or minute? Of those customers, how many buy rings? How many of these are monitoring fashion trends? Based on that information you can better determine how many of each size you need. Pay close attention to your customer’s habits for future reference. Some stores may have 100s of customers that prefer a variety of sizes while others do better with the three most common ones. At the end of the day, you want to make sure you have enough rings so you don’t run out before you get more, but you also don’t want stock laying around for a long period of time.
Monitor Trends
Never underestimate the power that social media and celebrity influence have over fashion trends. If influencers are seen wearing more midi rings or thumb rings, be prepared to have people asking for them. You may also have to consider the nature of various designs as some thicker rings cause people to shop a size or two larger than they normally would.
HOJ’s Recommendations
Sizes
House of Jewellery recommends stocking sizes 6 – 8 for women and 10 – 12 for men. We’ve personally seen these sizes perform better for the majority of our clients.
Quantity
When considering how many rings of each size, House of Jewellery can’t give definitive answers. Again, there are a number of factors to consider such as trends, the number of customers, their demographics, and how busy a store is. However, we recommend two of each of the sizes mentioned above.
Things to Keep in Mind
Before diving right into purchasing, there are some key factors we mentioned that we want to remind you to consider:
- Your client base and their demographics
- Your customers and their purchasing habits
- Trends in fashion and on social media
- Rings with thicker bands tend to fit more snug, and as a result, some people may need to go up a size
- Sometimes rings can’t be resized depending on the design (i.e. if the band has stones all the way around)
- Fingers fluctuate in size throughout the year so rings fit differently depending on the season and any activities people may be participating in
- Different fingers have different sizes on each hand
- Remind your customers to remove their rings before washing/sanitizing their hands
