RJIF 2021: Digital adoption for jewellers: Covid and beyond

Digital has been a loosely defined term, explained clearer as a basket of technologies of internet and cloud that enable businesses to function more efficiently than physical counterparts. In digitally empowered India, over 70 crore citizens use internet today. The opportunity for conversion is thus, huge.

There are more than 14 crore Indians buying goods online today. “About 30 crore Indians are about to use internet in the next four years. This includes a huge share in Indian workforce that can be optimized with AI-driven inventory analytics. Going digital is possible with self-awareness and attitude to adapt digital-first approaches constantly,” Devang Shah, Director, KPMG said.

Thereafter, Shah busted certain myths related to jewellery industry, the most prominent of them being digital will not impact jewellery consumption. Differentiating between e-commerce and digital commerce, Shah said that companies have clocked in hundreds of crores of sales through premium video sales experience during pandemic. That said, digital requires a steadfast approach of the owner to reshape company processes in a digital-first manner instead of opening social media accounts and hiring an agency without clarity on their deliverables. As daunting as that sounds, a brand also doesn’t need huge engineering teams to succeed digitally.

He also explained how technology can be applied in other areas of work to reduce workforce and improve efficiency and accuracy. There are scores of professionals in procurement, manufacturing & supply chain, sales and marketing, and support functions, who analyse inventory. “About 5-10% of this workforce can be reduced without affecting sales through AI-powered inventory analytics that help assess items to reorder at a store-level by crunching data.” Likewise, an entire chain of services from procuring precious metal such as gold to supplying products in respective stores to even deciding employee personas to ensure the employee skill and strength is well mapped with the role requirement, can be done digitally today, explained Shah.

Taking the digital leap is possible if brand heads train themselves on certain leadership-related digital marketing courses available abundantly online. Since digital companies work better on ecosystems, Shah urged every participant to interact with vendors and consultants in the market to know which company is helping manage working capital better and increase revenue. Hiring employees with specialized digital skills will then improve performance. Finally, having a steadfast approach to execute processes digitally will help in the transition of a brick-and-mortal brand to a digitally active and recognizable entity.

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller India News