Directing stock flow accurately, discovering market opportunity online

Saurav Prasad had done his Masters in Marketing and joined the family-run business of Prasad Jewellers, Odisha, in 2019, an achievement he had been aiming at since childhood to help the past generation expand business to the neighbouring states. Besides marketing, Prasad had also acted in advertisements. But a diploma course in jewellery designing from the Indian Institute of Gems and Jewellery (IIGJ) strengthened his resolve.

Launched ERP, CRM for stock assessment

We currently have three branches in Odisha and are planning to open our fourth store soon. I spotted a lack of proper procedure to find out what kind of stock is present in which store and in what quantity. This issue hampered even stock distribution across branches, with often stocks getting sent to the wrong branch. Installation of an ERP system informed us of stock availability across showrooms for accurate purchases and reduction in overstocking. We also used the system to identify dead stock with each branch and circulate it through promotional and discount offers.

Our first store has many old customers but there was no proper follow up happening. We didn’t know when was the last time the customer had paid us a visit, how many visits he has made so far, or what he had purchased during the last time. So, when we introduced the CRM system, we got the answers to all these questions and built better relationships with customers

Fully functional E-commerce website

Two years ago, we didn’t have a robust online presence, as people here like to buy jewellery from stores only. However, first lockdown shut all the stores and prompted especially the young and middle-aged customers to go online and browse designs.

Although the stores were closed, we could not afford to close the business and had to manage the expenses such as staff salaries.  Then, we found out that the customers are slowly opening up towards online jewellery purchase and decided to launch an introductory website through Instamojo on a trial basis just before Akshaya Tritiya in 2020. We had asked customers to book gold at current price, which could be redeemed via gold jewellery with the rate unchanged after the store reopened. We got a very good response from the customers, which encouraged us to open a fully functional e-commerce website, where one can buy jewellery as well as digital gold. We have been able to serve the millennials as well as Gen Z through the e-commerce website.

Carat meter and a certificate card for gold purity

Prasad Jewellers have a good reputation in the market across Odisha. However, we got a few complaints from customers about some unscrupulous businesspersons opening stores after our brand name and selling bad-quality products besides doing fake hallmarking on jewellery. To give more confidence to the customers, we introduced a carat meter at all the showrooms and are also providing a gold purity certificate card to each customer now.

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller India News