JITHENDRA VUMMIDI – MANAGING DIRECTOR VUMMIDI BANGARU JEWELLERS WINS THE MD OF THE YEAR FOR INNOVATION IN DIGITAL INITIATIVES

Brothers Amarendran and Jithendra Vummidi, fourth-generation leaders of the storied Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers in Chennai, are true pioneers of the virtual world. More than a decade ago, they launched an e-commerce platform for their legacy brand. The website focused on displaying VBJ’s diamond and gold jewellery range to the greatest effect.

The brothers worked to perfect display and outcomes, establishing a team to capture high quality images and draw customer attention online. As website visitor traffic and consumer engagement grew, VBJ continued to add features. Soon customers could customise their jewellery choices, selecting gold colour and diamond purity from a range of options.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vummidi brothers introduced video calling, allowing clients to examine jewellery pieces visually, live. This was a real success, driving up sales during the strict lockdowns and ever since. Video calling is now a permanent option for VBJ’s clientele.

From a high-quality showcase, VBJ’s website has developed into a full-fledged retail channel. The company is constantly implementing improvements in technology and experience to its online offering. Adding financial spice to the recipe, VBJ has introduced an online savings scheme to attract customer investments in the category.

As always, several steps ahead of its peers, VBJ is preparing now to enter the Metaverse, Facebook’s virtual reality space that offers novel opportunities for eCommerce. Tying up with an American company for this, VBJ will secure its intellectual property by trading through non-fungible tokens (NFT) inside the Metaverse. This automatically validates a particular design as belonging to the brand, curtailing the risk of “knockoffs” in the physical market. Ensuring product authentication thus saves the brand the time and effort it would take to patent every design.

This historic brand is ready to reap all the benefits of cutting-edge transparency.

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller India