As Zen Diamond completes its first full festive cycle since its 2024 debut — a flagship in Mumbai’s Bandra and a showroom in Borivali that have since grown to six stores — Managing Director Neil Sonawala tells The Retail Jeweller how a bold exchange offer, a celebrity ambassador, and a consumer whose mindset has quietly shifted are together rewriting what Akshaya Tritiya means for a diamond-first brand.
Edited Excerpts:
This was effectively Zen Diamond’s first real Akshaya Tritiya season. How did it pan out?
The brand launched in August 2024 and had just two stores last year. It now has six. The difference showed most clearly in the customer’s mindset. Last year, people walked in and checked out the collections and were impulsive in their purchase. This time, they had done their homework and had pretty much decided what they wanted to buy, they were more conscious, pre-decided before they came in.
Which categories and price points saw the most traction?
14-carat jewellery led, followed by 18-carat, with platinum emerging as a breakout performer. But the real headline was the upward shift in average spend. Last year, the entry-level bracket of Rs.1–3 lakhs dominated. This season, the highest traction was in the mid to high range — starting at Rs. 3 lakhs and going up to Rs. 8–10 lakhs. The average ticket size was around Rs. 5 lakhs.
Akshaya Tritiya has always been anchored in gold buying. Did that change?
Dramatically. Gold coin sales fell to under 5% of total revenue, with jewellery accounting for a full 95%. People came and bought things for themselves. They are living more in the moment. They want to enjoy the jewellery — wear the joy, wear the sin, that’s what we say. The brand’s own offer structure accelerated the shift: customers who purchased jewellery above a threshold were gifted gold coins, making a separate gold purchase redundant. They can put the money into jewellery and earn the gold.
Tell us about the Rs. 2,400-per-gram exchange offer. How did it perform?
We ran an exchange campaign offering customers Rs. 2,400 extra per gram on old gold traded in against jewellery purchases — so 10 grams of gold at market rate (Rs. 1,60,000) became a credit of Rs.1,84,000. The result was significant. Overall, 30% of our sales came through the exchange route. Around 20% of our annual business comes through the exchange programme year-round, outside of seasonal offers, and it is growing fast. The offer also opened doors to an entirely new customer profile. People saw our ads and were naturally drawn to us, and we converted that into a buying opportunity for them.
What drove the marketing impact this season?
Digital campaigns delivered the strongest ROI, that is what really worked and gave us a higher return. But the real multiplier was a high-profile brand association. Our partnership with Jennifer Lopez as Brand Ambassador gave us a lot of awareness. And if I club that awareness with very good incentives and offers, I would say that did the magic.
SPOTLIGHT: THE ARIA COLLECTION
Zen Diamond chose the two-day window of Akshaya Tritiya 2026 to launch The Aria Collection— its first-ever 18-carat gold collection featuring natural gemstones. The timing was strategic: the brand identified a segment of customers who preferred gold jewellery but couldn’t find modern designs in its stores. Designed for both everyday and evening wear, Aria sits squarely within Zen Diamond’s modern, international aesthetic. But it doesn’t signal a pivot. “Our focus is diamond jewellery. We are a diamond-first brand. I would say 80% will always be diamond jewellery — the balance will be gold and platinum,” says Sonawala.
How do you read the broader shift in the Indian jewellery consumer?
The Indian consumer has evolved. They have done their research, they know their budget, and they are choosing design over metal weight. Zen Diamond’s Akshaya Tritiya 2026 story is, at its core, a story about that evolution. For us, the numbers validate the strategy. Diamond first. Always.
Written by Xena Aayesha Stephen
The Retail Jeweller India News
