Cross-retailing with exclusivity is helping Rare Heritage win customers over

Cross-branding jewellery and clothing is a very delicate move. Excellent product positioning is required for a potential jewellery customer to fall in love with a dress that just blends along. Rare Heritage has been acing that road seldom taken with multiple collections over the years, and their latest project Tarifa has stood out the most.

Tarifa stands to be one of the exclusive couture ranges the brand has been releasing since its inception in 2019. Cross-retailing has always wooed Rare Heritage’s customers because of the aligned presentation of their clothing and jewellery ranges under the ambit of one collection.

“This works out very well for us, because a woman, who is a potential customer, wants to explore what all we have. Trying out a piece of jewellery almost compels a woman to look for a matching attire, which are readymade for each collection,” said brand co-founder Nakshatra Mehta.

By selling an aligned clothing range, the brand is addressing one important hiccup in terms of conversion. Many a times, says Mehta, the customer picks a jewellery collection for purchase, but then wonders about the dresses that would go along. This forces the customer to look elsewhere for a dress and thus, the conversion in jewellery fails to happen. “Our design teams are doing the hard work for the customer to have a totally satisfying luxury shopping experience,” he maintained. This is a brilliant way to transform the attitude of bridal shopping from cloth-first to jewellery-first, with the latter being a luxury product.

In order to make the brand a one-stop destination for bridal jewellery and trousseau, Rare Heritage has separate design teams for jewellery and clothing, who collaborate on a yearly unique theme such as Raya or Tarifa. The collections thus formed present a complete bridal look and provide total clarity on the appearance of the bride-to-be. Also, the brand doesn’t repeat its collections. This ensures peak consumer excitement.

The brand also focuses strongly on promotion. Take the Tarifa campaign for instance, which was launched in 2019-20 for the millennial, bold bride. “What the bride is looking for is ‘Tarifa’ (meaning praise in abundance). The bride of today has a very clear mindset and deserves to be praised. This thought process led us to style the campaign shoot uniquely,” said Mehta.

Uniquely indeed, the campaign shoot catches eyeballs simply because of the backdrop. The monochrome ambience and the flashy headwear by the bride-to-be reminds us of the 1920s glamour. She has attendants to take her care and is every bit a showstopper. “That attitude goes perfectly with the statement pieces we created, replete with polki, emeralds, rubies and diamonds. Today’s brides don’t wear jewellery unless they want to flaunt. So, each piece in Tarifa collection, be it jewellery or trousseau, is loud and flamboyant,” said Mehta.

Tarifa has become the most prominent of Rare Heritage’s projects. Launched in July-August 2019, it was sold out by November that year. This shows how mindful cross-retailing with exclusivity can bowl the customers over.

Written by Shubham Dasgupta

RJ exclusive