The impact of Covid-19 on Indian jewellery industry

The world stands crippled against the deadly Coronavirus and it won’t be wrong that it has impacted various industries across the world. And, the jewellery sector in the country has come to a standstill with retailers with fewer footfalls amid fear of the virus’ spread. But at the same time, the retailers are hopeful that as the pandemic will start to subside, the wedding season will begin and they will make up for the lost business.

We got in touch with some retailers to get their opinion on the same, and here’s what they had to say:

Best time to carry online training for staff

Atul Jain, of Atul Jewellers, feels that the current situation due to Corona outbreak in different parts of the world is certainly affecting jewellery business in a big way, but the industry can definitely use the time to train the staff using technology. “It’s best to utilise this time for development activities – we can run online training modules for the staff, which they usually don’t find time for. Since most of the clients are at home, we can softly send responsible social messages with our branding or picture of a jewellery piece, it helps in creating recall value for the brand. As responsible leaders of our businesses, we have to keep the employee morale up and also support them with all our resources.

Time to stay put

“It’s a very unstable market at the moment with gold falling over INR 2000 in the recent week. Everybody is staying put. I don’t see a lot of movement in the coming few weeks. As a precaution, we have also shut our production facilities because most of the staff uses public transport. In spite of taking all precautions, we still believe staying in is better than venturing out. There is a visible liquidity crunch in the market too so I don’t think people are looking at making any investments at the moment,” says Megha Malik of RESA Fine Jewellery.

Looking forward to the wedding season

Arpit Goyal of Ambrus Jewels opines that the world is facing unprecedented levels of anxiety, which has affected all asset classes including gold. “It appears that volatility in gold price is driven by massive liquidations across all assets and likely magnified by leveraged positions and rule-based trading. It may take a while until financial markets stabilise.”

According to him, gold prices too may experience further swings but all the retailers should look forward to the wedding season, which will bring hope. “Consumer demand may soften in the first half of this year, however, once the pandemic subsides, we expect wedding preparations to resume and gold to be among the first of the asset classes to witness consumer appetite,” he adds.

“Besides, as a precautionary measure we have shut our store and considering customer’s jewellery queries via WhatsApp and Instagram and for the selections to be made. Contactless deliveries will be available,” he concludes.

Courtesy: TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES