IF EVER THERE WAS any confusion about where one's extra cash goes when there's no place to spend it, the pandemic has cleared it up. Jewellery.

At a time when people can't travel, attend theatre and concert performances, or even dine at their favourite restaurants in a lockdown, they're putting money in pretty things that can also be a store of value and worn when life returns to some sense of normalcy.

''While 2020 has been a bad year for almost all industries, including luxury, the jewellery market has been very resilient,'' notes Srinivas K. Reddy, professor of marketing and director, Centre for Marketing Excellence at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University (SMU), and Academic Director, LVMH-SMU Asia Luxury Brand Research Initiative.

''There is tremendous pent-up demand. People have been buying groceries. They can't go and buy luxury items, they can't travel or go to fancy restaurants because of all these restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So irrespective of how well-to-do they are, they have saved a lot and the money is there.''

At LVMH, its watches and jewellery segment recorded organic revenue growth of 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, and 1 percent compared to that in 2019 - the latter figure particularly of note, given that comparisons to a very bad 2020 exaggerates growth numbers.

Part of that growth is due to their acquisition of Tifiany & Co., which the group said ''saw an excellent start to the year''.

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Still, Prof Reddy points out that Richemont also showed a similar growth pattern - without the benefits of contributions from a new maison.

Indeed, Q4 (January to March) 2021 sales from its jewellery maisons, which includes Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, were 28 and 24 per cent higher than in Q4 2019 in constant and actual exchange rates.

In the coming years, McKinsey & Company expects the fine jewellery market to grow at a 3 to 4 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2025, rising from an estimated US$280 billion in sales to between US$340 and US$360 billion.

Contributing to the growth are strong online revenues.

Case in point - the increase in Richemont's jewellery sales was helped by a triple-digit acceleration in online sales, a sharp contrast to the segment's low points in April and May 2020, ''when more than 50 per cent of the maisons' network was closed'', says Richemont in a statement following its results release in May.

While Tifiany customers in America can make online purchases of jewellery worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Cartier hosted its fi rst jewellery livestreaming show on Alibaba's Taobao Live during last year's 11.11 shopping festival. Amongst the over 400 watches and jewellery pieces showcased was a US$28.3 million necklace. The broadcast was a hit, registering over RMB100 million (S$20.9million) in sales.

In the branded fine jewellery segment, McKinsey says Asia has grown to represent an estimated 45 percent of all such jewellery sales. The region's rapid growth in wealth, led by a strong Chinese market, is expected to result in its sales of such jewellery expanding at a 10 to 14 percent CAGR between 2019 and 2025, compared to a global branded jewellery average of 8 to 12 percent.

For the fine jewellery market as a whole, McKinsey foresees online channels growing at a 9 to 12 per cent CAGR during the same period, thanks to ''unprecedented digital evolution following a tangible shift in consumer comfort with purchasing fine jewellery online, sparked by the global pandemic''.

But how can people buy such high-ticket items when they cannot see it in real life, touch it or try it on for size?

The reason is trust - backed by history and heritage.

''Trust only comes when you have built a strong brand, and the luxury brands have already done that, so they can leverage on it,'' Prof Reddy points out. ''Going forward, e-commerce is going to be an important source of sales for many of these luxury makers, so they will also create great experiences online.''

Apart from having a fantastic story to tell, luxury brands will increasingly utilise technology, including artificial intelligence and augmented reality, to enhance the online experience and sell their products.

And if you can't go to the store, the store can come to you. ''Some people will obviously want to touch and feel the jewellery and this is where the evolution with many of the luxury brands for their VVIP clients will occur - the store can arrange to personally bring the pieces to you,'' says Prof Reddy. ''There are things they can scale up.''

When Louis Vuitton - better known for its leather handbags - was announced in January last year as the surprise buyer of the world's second largest rough diamond, Michael Burke, its chairman and chief executive said that fine jewellery is ''one of the highest-growth categories we have, if not the highest''.

He later added that the stone is testament to the maison's ''desire to be a major player in jewellery". And why not?

Bling it on.