“It is a tough period for big jewellers as customers are buying less than what they did five years ago. ”

Indranil Roy Choudhary

Owner, MP Jewellers, Kolkata

The Indian gems and jewellery market has always seen a good demand and subsequently, good growth. However, the last two-three years have not been so good. Even exports have stood at USD11.2 billion in April-July 2018 period according to the data released by Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). At home, the slow demand can be easily felt, more so in major metros.

For big jewellers, it is a tough period as customers are buying less than what they did five years ago. I feel that lack of liquidity and the uncertainty has made people tighten their purse strings when it comes to spending on jewellery. It is definitely bad news for jewellers; after all, we want consumers to buy as much as possible.

Another factor that has impacted business is the fact that people are hardly buying heavy and expensive jewellery. They now look at light-weight jewellery which can be worn at all times and is not locked up in the bank locker.

So, what has happened is that this dip in demand has pushed major brands and regional jewellers to seek out consumers in Tier 2 and 3 cities which has a growing middle-class population with high disposable incomes. In a sense, too many jewellers are now competing for the same customer without any major USP or design differentiation.

Today, most smaller towns and cities have one or two major jewellery retail brands. In addition, they have their own local jewellers. So, one can imagine the choices customers have today and the kind of competition that is there. In such a scenario, it is tough for jewellers to offer new designs or be innovative with their styles. After all, there are just so many designs in the market which can be played around with.

One doesn’t know how long the current state-of-affairs will last. But it doesn’t mean that one cannot find a way out. Besides expansion in smaller town, another important way is to know the pulse of the consumer. Today, the younger generation wants newer types of metals and designs. Gold is no longer the first choice. So, for a jeweller it is imperative to have a dynamic inventory. It should keep changing keeping in mind what the consumer wants. It makes sense to bring in other metals such as platinum or gems such as sapphire and diamonds. Light-weight jewellery is another option that jewellers can offer to consumers. A market survey should be carried out to understand what the consumers want at present and are likely to want in the future. This will help any jeweller to boost his sales even when demand is less.

I think most importantly, a jeweller needs to drive efficiencies in all spheres of business.  Although last year we added three more stores, internally, we are looking to make our operations leaner.  It’s time now to look at making each individual store a profit centre and drive growth. We are also looking to explore the asset light model of franchisees to penetrate further into
the regional markets where we have
a presence.

 Without innovative thinking, it is tough to beat the blues. The markets will keep changing, demand will fluctuate but jewellers cannot lose heart. They need to go with the flow and change according to the demand. The sooner we see the writing on the wall, the better it is for us.

As told to Meenakshi Kumar

“Today, most smaller towns and cities have major jewellery retail brands. In addition, they have their own local jewellers. In such a scenario, it is tough for jewellers to offer new designs or be innovative with their styles. After all, there are just so many designs in the market which can be played around with.”