-Devender Kumar, Managing Director, Krishna Pearls & Jewellers, Punjagutta
As a third-generation jeweller with 42 years of experience at Krishna Pearls & Jewellers, I have witnessed first-hand the evolution of our industry—from conventional word-of-mouth selling to drift towards digital marketing. Over the past few years, we, like most retail jewellers in India, have had to adapt and pivot quickly to keep up with the shift towards online presence. Digital marketing today is almost a necessity. There is no escaping it. If you are a brand in jewellery retail, you are expected to be present on Instagram, Facebook, Google, and now even WhatsApp and YouTube, for more reach and visibility. Whether or not it delivers measurable results, everyone is expending money to stay visible, but visibility doesn’t always translate to sales.
We have spent significantly on digital marketing. We’ve tried everything: hiring external digital agencies, building an in-house team, and even working with digital consultants. Each setup has its own pros and cons, but I can honestly say none of them have been game changers. There was a time when we had high hopes that a dedicated digital spend would lead to robust online conversions. That expectation has been reset.
We’ve done full-fledged campaigns, from photoshoots, video content, influencer collaborations, product reels, to festival-based creatives! There is no type of digital content we haven’t explored. While the visuals may look beautiful and our followers grow steadily, the ROI, in terms of actual sales conversions, has been marginal. In fact, despite pouring money into paid promotions, we saw less than a 1% return on investment. It’s disappointing, but it’s a reality that many jewellers may be facing silently.
From our own analytics, we observed that earlier, digital marketing used to drive about 7–8% of our total conversions. But over the last 6 months, that figure has dropped to around 5%. This is despite increasing our content output and digital investments. There’s clearly a saturation point that has been reached, and customers are overwhelmed with choices. Brand fatigue is real.
“From our analytics, we observed that earlier, digital marketing used to drive about 7–8% of our total conversions. But over the last 6 months, that figure has dropped to around 5%. This year, we’ve taken a conscious decision to cut our digital marketing budget by 50% for FY 2025–26”
-Devender Kumar, Managing Director, Krishna Pearls & Jewellers, Punjagutta
This year, we’ve taken a conscious decision to cut our digital marketing budget by 50% for FY 2025–26. The reason is simple, the returns don’t justify the investment. Paid promotions are expensive and heavily diluted due to the sheer number of brands competing for attention. Yes, you might get reach, views, likes, and even inquiries, but what really matters is how many of those translate into in-store footfall or online sales—and that number remains dismally low.
I firmly believe that if your brand has physical stores, then digital marketing works better. The content leads to curiosity, which can result in a store visit. But for online jewellery business, the expectations on conversions should not be that high. Especially in categories like high-value gold and bridal jewellery, the customer wants to see and feel the product before making a decision. Digital can’t replicate that experience.
Organic content, however, is something I still believe in. Customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes from the store, genuine feedback, and authentic product showcase videos do create a better connection. These don’t require a heavy budget but they work on trust—and trust is still the cornerstone of jewellery retail. So, while we may scale down paid promotions, we will continue to push organic content consistently. Currently, we use a hybrid model of external and internal digital marketing, guided by consultants, to keep the balance between quality and cost-efficiency.
Jewellers must also understand that not all product categories benefit equally from digital. For instance, we retail both gold and silver jewellery. But our experience shows that silver, being more affordable, performs better online. Customers still prefer visiting the store, especially for new designs. Even with silver, very few customers purchase directly through social media links or DMs.
One area where we’ve learned a valuable lesson is the unnecessary competition among jewellers in the digital space. One brand runs a campaign, the other tries to outdo it. In this pursuit, everyone ends up inflating their budgets and expectations. But when you look at actual business numbers, the math doesn’t work. It’s important we share this understanding within the trade rather than blindly following trends.
At best, digital marketing today contributes about 5% to our direct sales. The rest comes from store visits, referrals, legacy goodwill, great designs and trust built over decades. So, yes, digital is essential for visibility, but it cannot be the foundation of your entire business strategy—at least not yet.
In summary, my opinion is clear: digital marketing is a powerful tool, but it is not a magic wand. We as jewellers need to be smart about how we use it. Digital marketing will increase your reach and equiries, but need to focus on finding ways to bring the customers to the stores. That should be our ultimate focus. Keep the brand alive on social media, definitely. Engage with your audience, tell your story, show your legacy, but do not fall into the trap of thinking that higher digital spends will proportionally lead to higher business and direct conversions. Let’s prioritize meaningful engagement over vanity metrics. Let’s spend wisely, and not just follow the noise.
As told to Pratyasha Kumari
