GJEPC webinar discusses consumer insights for business post Coronavirus

GJEPC (The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council), the apex body of gems and jewellery industry in the country held a webinar on May 06, 2020 to discuss the impact of Coronavirus on jewellery business and the change in consumer behaviour.
The enlightening session, which was moderated by Colin Shah, Vice-Chairman, GJEPC included many stalwarts of the Indian jewellery industry.

The list of panelists consisted of:

Sachin Jain, President, Forevermark India
Vaishali Banerjee, Managing Director, Platinum Guild India

Somasundaram PR, Managing Director, India, World Gold Council

The webinar also saw participation from two guest speakers in the form of Shekhar Banerjee,Chief Client Officer & West Head,Wavemaker and Soumya Mohanty, Chief Client Officer, Kantar Insights Division.

Here are some key highlights from the session:

The session was opened by Colin Shah, who elaborated on how important it was to touch upon this new change- and how this pandemic will change the consumer behaviour globally?

Sachin Jain started the discussion by sharing that diamonds will always be on top of consumer minds.

Soumya Mohanty spoke about consumer perspective on the new normal, highlighting the fact that there will be a shift in consumer activities and the jewellery industry has to plan for growth in these uncertain times.

She delved on three questions:

How will people have money?

How will they shop, and

How will we build trust?

According to Soumya, the consumers in Asia seem to be more optimistic and the data she presented echoed the fact with 46 percent of people in Asia suggesting that they will save more money. She added that optimism in Asia was clearly higher than the west.

“The concerns about having adequate money are increasing and the shape of demand is likely to shift,” she said.

Ms Mohanty said things weren’t as bad as they seem as consumers won’t stop spending on weddings.“They will still spend on wedding and the jewellery makers need to focus on the same as wedding jewellery will be a high point in the coming days. It is important to build opportunities around the same,” she added.

Citing examples of global retailers, Mohanty said that retailers need to focus on appointment buying and create desire along with building trust.

Shekhar Banerjee opined that the media industry will help in bringing about a change in the perspective of the consumer and called this an “opportunity in chaos” scenario for the jewellery industry.

“We are getting time to reigneer our brand. Post the luckdown, we will enter the festive period and it’s time to gear up for the same,” said Banerjee.

He added that some points that need to be kept in mind are that the businesses will have to put customers at ease, steady the ship and thrive in the new normal.

Banerjee cited the example of how Chinese people were thronging in luxury showrooms like Louis Vuitton to treat themselves and that’s the model Indian retailers should follow, to “create an opportunity for them and move towards a touchless economy and digital presence for brands.”

Somasundaram PR, who represented the World Gold Council sounded optimistic as he said everything will get back to normal with some positive changes like increased consumer conveniences and better buying experiences.

“Since gold is the best performing asset, we would not see a drop in its demand but the business will definitely see innovation,” added Somasundaram.

Why would consumers still buy diamonds?
Sachin Jain chose to answer the question by citing the permanence of diamonds. The meaning of time has changed. Once this negativity ends we’ ll see happiness and the consumer will make assessment of things that matter and in their desire for positivity and permanence, they would buy diamonds for its meaningfulness.

What shift will take place in the consumer’s mind with reference to platinum?
Vaishali Banerjee, from Platinum Guild India answered the question by saying that platinum’s consumer base base is millennials, who bounce back faster and are more optimistic.
“What will change is that they will want more meaning in life and they want to enrich their lives. There will be a celebration post Covid-19 – mindsets will shift and everyone will want to celebrate and since jewellery is intrinsically connected to celebration, it will definitely pick up if we can really focus on building emotions and aspirations,” she added.

What brands need to do?
Sachin stressed on brands keeping up ethics and urged everyone to stand by their karigars or the real jewellery artisans.

He also added that the users need to be engaged and brands need to create demand for their jewellery as soon as the market reopens.

“Jewellery is at a very strong position and we have to keep it there. Marketing will be essential to get back the demand,” he concluded

Courtesy: TOI