Tax free, watch and jewellery sales in Italia up 13 per cent

It is the super precious products - jewellery and watches - that will drive the European and Italia tax free market in 2025. In fact, the percentage of growth in sales of these types of products (+14% in Europe, +13% in Italia compared to 2024) is more than double that of the value of tax free as a whole, which closed 2025 with a 5% increase

The picture comes from a report by Global Blue, Europe's leading tax-free operator, analysing sales performance in the Watches&Jewelry segment. In recent years, the jewellery sector has experienced strong growth (due to the rush to purchase for investment and the boom in the price of gold) but has recently seen a drop in demand, crushed by the skyrocketing cost of raw materials. The value of jewellery purchases made by non-EU citizens in Europe in 2025, however, is growing: +10% compared to 2024. The biggest increase, equal to 20%, was recorded in sales of exclusive products, with a price above 10 thousand euro, which are worth 35% of the tax free jewellery in Europe. In Italia, jewellery shopping also jumped by 10% thanks to a broadening of the buyer base (+11%). One figure to highlight at Italian level concerns the spending by the Chinese, to whom, until the pandemic, about one third of tax-free purchases in Italia and Europe were owed. The value of transactions by citizens of the People's Republic in jewellery products rose by 29% (against +13% at European level). Pre-Covid levels are far away and difficult to recover, but the return of the Chinese to shopping is a positive sign.

Generally speaking, watch sales in 2025 were affected by the slowdown in purchases from key markets such as China and the fluctuating effects of instability in the US. In the tax free, however, the sector asserted itself as a market driver: at European level, the increase in tax free spending on watches was +20% over 2025, thanks to a +15% increase in average spending per buyer (€7,100), while in Italia the value of the transacted business was +18%, thanks to the broadening of the buyer base (+13%) and average spending up 4% to €8,200. Although the main buyers of watches are Americans - who, in Italy, absorb 33% of the tax free - the biggest increases in 2025 were recorded by Arabs (+43% in Italia and +34% in Europe) and citizens of Latin American countries (+31%).

Broadening the focus to tax-free shopping as a whole, 2026 opened with stability: the first quarter of the year was in line with the same period in 2025. The US remained the top nationality and continued to grow, with spending up by +18%. The most marked contraction was recorded by tourists from the Gulf countries (-27%).