Striking Gold with Old Jewellery

Bhuvan Goel, a first-generation jeweller and owner of SKA Diamonds in New Delhi, always wanted to do something on his own. Although his father runs an electrical business, Bhuvan was long harboured a fascination with gems and jewellery. But it was only in 2015-16 after visiting a few jewellery exhibitions in and around Delhi that he decided to embark on his entrepreneurial journey and start his own diamond jewellery business. Bhuvan, who has a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Investment Analysis and a master’s degree in International Business Management, then did several jewellery-related courses from the International Gemological Institute and the Gemological Institute of America to attain the sector-specific skills. But it is a specialised service—upcycling antique and old jewellery into a brand-new design—that has won Bhuvan a loyal clientele.

Keyed into customers’ needs

A year and a half ago, I realised that my clients did not buy new jewellery during the wedding season due to the high gold prices and other factors. When I explored the issue more deeply, I found out that many people own ancestral jewellery, mostly kept in bank lockers, and which they hold on to for sentimental reasons. But some clients were keen on upcycling their old jewellery, and it is then that I came up with the jewellery designing scheme. Slowly, I started asking my clients to bring their old jewellery to the store and have it revamped into a newly designed jewellery piece without paying a huge amount.

Our redesigning process

I hired a design team to work exclusively on redesigning old jewellery. Now, whenever a client visits our store with any old jewellery piece, the design team meets them directly to discuss the kind of design they would like. Based on their inputs, the design team immediately creates several sketches on paper to show the client right then. After receiving an initial go-ahead from the client, the group uses Computer-Aided Designing (CAD) to prepare several designs. CAD allows you to use different colours to give the designs a 3D look. Once the CAD designs are ready, which can take up to a week, the client is invited to the store for their final approval. At times a client may ask for a few modifications to the design, which we do on the spot. During their interactions with the client, the team also informs them about the precise amount of materials like gemstones and diamonds that will be used in the creation of the new product and gives them an estimated cost. It is only after the client finalises the design and approves the estimated value that their jewellery piece goes through the redesigning process. The redesigning process can take anywhere between 15-45 days, depending on the jewellery item. For instance, it can take about 15 days to redesign an earring set, but an intricate wedding jewellery set would require 45 days.

Result

It is a win-win situation for our clients and us. Our clients get brand new jewellery without having to pay a hefty fee, while it helps retailers like us build a customer base and relationships. When I first introduced the redesigning service, only 4-5% of our clients opted for it, but now about 25% of them are happy to redesign their old jewellery. We invested heavily in promoting our jewellery redesigning service on social media and have also taken part in several exhibitions to spread the word.

Image Courtesy: downtownme.com