The accessible-luxury jewelry brand Pandora posted 8% same-store sales growth in the U.S. last year.

U.S. jewelry sales advanced a tepid 1.3% in 2024, driven primarily by price increases as the number of units sold dropped 1.6%, according to industry analyst Edahn Golan of Tenoris.

Yet, while American consumers largely hit the pause button on new jewelry purchases, the accessible-luxury jewelry brand Pandora posted 8% same-store sales growth in the U.S. last year.

With the U.S. being Pandora’s number one market accounting for 31% of total revenues, organic sales in the U.S. advanced 14% to $1.3 billion (DKK 9,709 million), fueled by the addition of 37 new concept stores and acquiring 36 stores from partners.

Pandora global sales went into overdrive too, up 13% organically and 7% like-for-like, to $4.4 billion (DKK 31,680). Contributing to the organic growth were 236 new stores, including 137 Pandora concept stores and 99 Pandora-owned shop-in-shops, ending the year with nearly 7,000 points-of-sale. That includes a mix of Pandora-owned, franchise-owned and third-party distribution across the globe.

And while its core jewelry charm-and-bracelet segment accounted for 74% of total sales, its extended full-jewelry segment, called “Fuel with more,” including lab-grown diamonds, was on fire, up 22% to $1.1 billion (DKK 8,149).

Growing Despite A Market Slowdown

One can argue Pandora is growing in a stagnant market because it has the right product at the right price in all the right places with the right promotion and for the right people, i.e. the traditional 4Ps of marketing plus the missing P-people.

CEO Alexander Lacik says that the P-formula still applies but it is only the tactical piece. And in the face of a slowing market, many companies leaned into the price and promotion part of the equation to boost sales.

“It’s the highest level of promotions we’ve seen in my six years at Pandora and we have seen a negative sentiment in the industry over the past couple of years,” shared CEO Alexander Lacik with me.

“What emerged at the end of last year and also continuing into this year is that more brands are struggling and moving to heavier discounting to get the sales volume they need,” he continued. “There’s not a lot of volume out there and when you go for the volume, you pay for the volume.”

The downward promotional spiral leads to commoditization, ultimately threatening long-term sustainable growth once the market returns. Instead of pushing for volume through discounting, though he admits Pandora has “partaken to some extent,” Pandora has invested in brand building, the results of which are now showing.

Interbrand named Pandora to the 100 best global brands in 2024 where it sits alongside Tiffany, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel, Gucci, Dior and Prada.

“In any market condition, there will be winners and losers, and it’s usually the brands that continue investing in their identity and customer relationships that emerge stronger. This is the essence of our Phoenix strategy, and six consecutive quarters of double-digit growth in a challenging market show that it is working,” Lacik asserted.

Implementing Strategy For Sustainable Long-Term Growth

When Lacik joined Pandora in 2019, after years of working with CPG giants Procter & Gamble and Reckitt, he faced the career challenge of a lifetime. Revenues had been flat for the two preceding years at around $3 billion, then the pandemic hit and sales went into a tailspin, dropping 8% in 2019 and another 11% in 2021 to $2.7 billion, below 2016 levels.

The turnaround began in May 2021 with the introduction of Pandora’s Phoenix strategy with the goal of achieving between 5% and 7% organic compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2023 and since revised to between 7% and 9% CAGR from 2023 to 2026.

The Phoenix strategy hinges on four growth pillars:

Transformation Into A Full-Jewelry Brand

Building upon Pandora’s strength as an affordable, collectible and emotionally evocative charm-and-bracelet brand, it set out to expand its product assortment into new jewelry product categories with an elevated design sensibility.

Key to brand transformation was to step-up the presentation of the evolving product offerings in stores with a new store concept called Evoke 2.0. By 2026 some 60% of Pandora’s owned and operated stores will be under the Evoke 2.0 model.

Design To Broaden The Assortment

The strategy distinguished its collections between Core collections, i.e. Moments and Pandora ME, which are the brand’s charm-and-bracelet core that share similar design aesthetics, and “Fuel with more” that expand the range into a full-jewelry assortment with new design sensibilities to appeal to both current customers and bring in new customers, such as its lab-grown diamond collection of rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

Brand collaborations, such as with Disney, Marvel, HBO’s Game of Thrones and Netflix, stretch the brand further to a wider audience.

Expand Market Penetration

Pandora continues to see opportunities for growth in new markets, to continue to build in established markets where it has high market share, such as the U.K., Italy and Australia, and to expand into what it describes as “less penetrated markets,” notably the U.S., Germany, France and China.

In the U.S., the Pheonix strategy set out to double business from the 2019 base year of $660 million, which it has achieved. And now it looks to continue to grow as market share in the U.S. is in the low single-digit levels.

China is more problematic. It was hit harder by Covid and didn’t bounce back as other markets did. Lacik expects building a substantial business in China – it currently represents about 1% of revenues – will be a “longer journey than originally anticipated.”

He added, “All the research that I’m reading is that the consumer sentiment in China is the lowest it’s been since that research has been going on. And it doesn’t necessarily seem to be going better, to be honest.”

Personalization Through Retail Execution And Digitalization

Personalizing the customer experience is a multiple-prong initiative across customized IRL experiences with store personnel, in-store engraving services, a new loyalty program and an enhanced digital experience.

It just launched an enhanced Pandora website with more video presentations and supported by AI in Canada and Italy. Following its proven “test-and-learn” process, it will be expanding that platform into new markets as the year progresses.

Sustainability To Support The Planet

As the world’s largest jewelry brand, Pandora has a special responsibility to lead the industry in sustainability and good business practices. It transitioned to fully-recycled gold and silver in 2024 and been named to Corporate Knights’ and Time Magazine’s list of the 100 world’s most sustainable brands. It also has a long-term mission to reduce emissions throughout its value chain in half by 2030 and be net-zero by 2040.

Lacik has also been named to the board of the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030, a coalition of leading jewelry companies committed to ESG and sustainability in the industry where he’ll rub shoulders with leaders of the world’s luxury jewelry brands.

Think Differently

Coming to Pandora as an outsider with no prior jewelry experience has worked to Lacik’s advantage guiding Pandora into its next phase of growth. He isn’t blinded by the industry’s conventional thinking and sees opportunities where an industry insider might not.

That is evident in his thinking about the digital connection with customers that Pandora will bring forward to new markets after it tests-and-learns from the prototypes introduced in Italy and Canada.

“Online is actually my number one store, say we get some 700 to 900 million visitors a year. But only about 2% actually convert, which is pretty typical of other brands. Many marketers spend time talking about what would happen if we could go from 2% to 2.1% or 2.2% conversion rate. But if you are in a two-to-2.1% mindset, that’s incremental; you’re only tinkering with stuff.

“We must think another way. What about the 98% who are walking away? How can we get more of those 98% engaged with us and keep them from leaving. That’s what we are looking at and the first step is what we’ve done in Canada and Italy. It is actually quite promising.”