Jewellery industry in India: heralding a technological transformation

The 21st century is defined by ‘technology’ with everything from shopping, communication, work and social interactions having becoming predominantly digital. Hence, it seems to be quite natural that jewellery production has also gone the digital way. India is one of the largest jewellery consumers in the world and the overall market is expected to value over $100 billion by 2025. In such a scenario, digital technology integration will increasingly drive this growth. The market has become multi-dimensional with ecommerce platforms, cloud solutions, computer-aided design (CAD), AR and 3D printing tools becoming popular. Today, technology is enhancing customer experience for jewellery buyers by transforming the production processes.

The hybrid retail model has eliminated the market limits for jewellery brands. You might have a store in Bangalore, and deliver the products in Guwahati. This is how things stand with the integration of offline and online channels in jewellery retail. Supply chain processes have become far more streamlined, efficient and fast. Payments are made digitally and products packaged in a touchless manner and dispatched across the country ensuring that the customers don’t need to wait for weeks or months to get the product they want.

Demand-based products

The digital tools of jewellery production have made it possible for consumers to get exactly what they want. Manufacturers are constantly listening to consumers and quickly create product offerings that meet their expectations. This is where innovations like modular jewellery, size-changeable rings and many other such innovations are ensuring customer delight. In fact, now it is possible for jewellery designers to offer customizations on any product whether it is a ring, necklace or a bracelet. Demand and consumer expectation based production is not only leading to greater customer delight retention, but also helping retailers to move stock faster leading to greater revenue.

3D Printing

One of the most beneficial integrations of digital technology has been the emergence of 3D printing and CAD. These have created a wide range of benefits for the jewellery makers. They can make design alterations on the go, achieve detailing that is almost impossible manually, and produce the products faster! Lost-Wax Printing and Casting has allowed manufacturers to use a diversity of metals such as copper, gold, bronze, silver and brass to create trending and unique designs.

3D printing also allows customers to play a role in the jewellery design process which makes their experience more personalized and satisfactory. Elements such as polyamide, alumide, ceramics, and rubber, etc., can be integrated to make the pieces more affordable, durable and customizable.

Lasers

Laser is not exactly a digital novelty. By creating digital tech driven processes, the benefits of laser cutting have become a lot more valuable for the jewellery industry. Today, the product makers use lasers for welding, cutting and embellishing the finely crafted pieces. Laser cutting tools have enhanced the designing potential and precision of execution. Lasers are also playing a key role in ensuring genuineness and preventing theft of jewellery. The technology is so precise that it can be used to create microscopically identification marks and numbers on diamonds and gems directly.

Lightweight Jewellery

It won’t be wrong to say that the emergence of affordable, light-weight jewellery wouldn’t have been possible without digital technology driven tools such as electroforming. This technology allows jewellery makers to create intricate, light but strong metallic designs. Through the process, a thicker layer of silver or gold is created which keeps the weight light, but, products like earrings more durable.

In conclusion

Modern technology and digital tools are making the jewellery landscape much more interesting than ever. Now, the power of CAD backed by the production abilities of 3D printing make it possible for the jewellery makers to do away with the conventional designs. Customers have a far greater number of options to choose from among new, unique, light-weight and affordable product offerings. With the evolution of new tools and constant innovations, it is almost a certainty that this buyer and seller experience will also steadily improve.

Courtesy: Economic Times