#RJIF2024: Generative AI can significantly streamline India’s jewellery sector operations, says Praveen Govindu of Deloitte

About 60% of total orders in jewellery e-commerce come from Tier II and Tier III cities in India, a country that will add over 110 million households to this segment in the next 8-10 years, stated the Deloitte representative

MUMBAI: The keynote session by Deloitte India at the recently held Retail Jeweller India Forum in Mumbai focused on the immense progress that India’s jewellery sector has made in the overall retail milieu. In his session titled ‘The future of jewellery retail in India: Redefining jewellery retail through people, product, processes and technology’, Praveen Govindu, Partner, Deloitte India pointed out how fast the penchant for personalization is catching up in this sector.

Govindu cited the instance of his son’s prenatal tooth that his wife wanted to be converted into jewellery for memory, his family’s search for a brand to fulfil it, and becoming loyal customers of one brand which said yes to their request. He stated that while the Indian retail market is almost at a trillion dollars and growing at speed, the jewellery industry is expected to become a $150 million market in 7-8 years. He said 55% of the retail contribution happens through wedding purchases in India as per Deloitte’s survey, and 1 in 3 people like to buy jewellery during festivals.

“About 60% of total orders in e-commerce come from Tier II and Tier III cities. India is going to add over 110 million households to this segment in the next 8-10 years. From a supply perspective, almost 35% of India’s jewellery sector is organized and that proportion will grow. The growth of the jewellery sector is 4X, while that of the retail sector overall is 2X, which shows an increasing propensity to spend in the luxury space,” said Govindu. He maintained that non-metro cities have a great role to play in this regard, as nearly 40%-50% of e-commerce orders for luxury brands overall are coming from non-metro cities, thanks to increasing Internet penetration. Adding on, real estate and jewellery have emerged to be two luxury components among HNIs and ultra HNIS that can serve as potential alternatives to the stock market, he said.

In the case of the luxury jewellery market, meaningful designs and the story-telling aspect are important, said Govindu. Deloitte is currently helping one of the largest national chains in the country go omnichannel, and in doing so, they have found six forces that are shaping the retail industry now. “They are economic power and policy, changing consumers, society and culture, exponential technology, industry upheaval and climate and planet,” Govindu said.  

According to Govindu, for a successful omni-channel process, the three vital pillars are customer, inventory and sale. One of the important tasks of Deloitte is to lower inventory at the store level of the chain store brand, which can be done with omnichannel that reduces inventory and improves ROI. Talking about cases of generative AI in jewellery, Govindu said that the technology will optimize the cost of customization and marketing. “Today, companies are investing in business models which are interactive platforms for suppliers, logistic partners, insurance companies and customers. When it comes to sustainability, data suggests that Indians are by far the most affected by climate change and are more into buying exclusively from sustainable brands,” he added. 

Elaborating on the perks of generative AI, Govindu mentioned Zomato and other food aggregator brands that are using conversational AI to appease customers without human intervention. The major learning from this development, remarked Govindu, is for jewellers to input their own data to train these systems and generate original, impactful content. 

Written by Ashwin Bose

Retail Jeweller India Exclusive