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Consumers Benefit as Traditional Jewellers Battle Brands The age-old jeweller next door hasn’t gone away despite the onslaught of brands and modern retail formats. But the battle has moved into high gear. Where the former had the edge with the personal service they offered, the brands have been hitting back with personalized service, customization and a host of other extras. Shanoo Bijlani reports.

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randing has caught on with Indian jewellery consumers in a big way and the many global and national jewellery brands in the country have steadily cornered an increasing share of the market. Market drivers for brands include celebrity endorsements, which have gone down big with Bollywood-mad Indian 30

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consumers. The newer retail formats have also heavily influenced the rise of branded jewellery in the country. The buying experience in the new, plush retail showrooms or the trendy outlets in malls – themselves part of a lifestyle revolution in the country – is itself now part of the allure of acquiring a piece of jewellery. And finally, brands addressed

Kashi Jewellers

a vital issue with jewellery – consumer assurance. Brands boosted consumer confidence with their precisely stated weights of precious metals, gemstones and diamonds as well as their certified qualities. Industry experts note that branded jewellery’s market share in India is growing at about 30 per cent annually, and this is amply substantiated by the growth registered by many of the national branded names. In the four years of its existence, Gold Plus, a jewellery division of Titan, Tata group, has spread across six states and retails designer gold jewellery through 30 outlets. Started in 1995, Tanishq, another of Titan jewellery retail arm which retails fine, high-end jewellery, today operates more than 100 stores spread in 65 cities across the country. Reliance, which opened its first jewellery retail store in Dhanbad

in 2008, has grown to 15 stores today. Almost 60 top international jewellery brands like Harry Winston, Cartier, Bulgari, de Grisogno and Chopard among others have now established themselves in India, bringing their own brand mystique with them. On the face of it, it appears as though that Indian icon, the generations-old family jeweller, might be an endangered species. Solitaire spoke to some to find out how they were doing in the face of this onslaught and what tactics they had adopted to counter it. It turns out that while the brands may be increasing their market share – one traditional jeweller felt that branded jewellery has taken away 50 per cent of the business from traditional jewellers – the small, unbranded neighbourhood jewellers are still doing very well, for the same reason that the malls and hypermarkets haven’t been Solitaire INTERNATIONAL l JANUARY 2010

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able to put the neighbourhood grocer out of business – unmatched personal service. Most traditional jewellers maintain long-term relationships with their customers by offering a number of incentives such as a week’s free trial of a piece of jewellery, easy payment terms, good exchange deals, and at times act as pawnbrokers when customers need money urgently (only those who are licensed to lend money engage in this business). In the war to retain consumer loyalty, it appears that customer is queen. JKJ & Sons Jewellers has one showroom in Jaipur and two in Delhi. Kailash Mosun, a partner in the firm and a seventh-generation jeweller, says, “We’ve been in the export and wholesale business for the last 150 years and in retail since 1996 and we know how to hold on to our customers. We have been selling hallmarked products ever since we opened our first retail showroom. To be in this business and gain the trust of clients, one needs to be above board.” Mosun explains that selling 22-karat hallmarked gold jewellery has given their firm an edge 32

in their business because the customer is assured of the gold’s purity. “Our margins are slim, and we sell jewellery at reasonable rates,” he adds. But it is only after we close the deal that our work begins in real earnest. We offer excellent after-sales service. If a customer buys jewellery from us she is bound to get the service JKJ is reputed for. We also service products that she has not bought from us. Above all, each and every customer is treated equally – the one who buys a nose pin or the one who buys an expensive necklace set – and each one is considered special. This way, the woman who buys the nose pin will want to come back to us when she wants to buy an expensive set tomorrow.” JKJ offers healthy buybacks, exchanges, free repair and polishing services and caters to any other need of the customer. “Jewellery brands have not taken business from us,” asserts Mosun. “Buying jewellery cannot be equated to window shopping, which is what happens in the malls. A consumer has to be confident about the jeweller from whom she buys. Customers who walk into our stores are already determined

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to make purchases.” Sajid Ansari of Takat Gems, Jaipur, revealed that although his firm has began retailing gem-studded gold and silver designer jewellery for the last five years, the firm has been a major exporter of emeralds, rubies and other gemstones to the US, Europe, Russia, Australia and the Gulf region since 1955. Ansari began to design and retail exclusive jewellery, capitalising on the already established name of the company in Jaipur. He notes, “We offer good exchange values and pay back 20 per cent of the value of a jewellery piece in cash if a customer wants to return it. We also do free certification of gemstones and jewellery, which costs us around Rs. 700 or more per piece. We customise jewellery and offer high design value.”

Nitien Jain, jewellery designer & gemmologist of Rianaya Dimon, and partner of Sha Punamchand Nemaji & Co based in Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar, says, “Our business model is dependent on trust, innovation and service. If we can provide all of these, we can expect a long-term relationship with our customer. We have experienced that an imbalance in any of these factors results in losing a client.” To maintain relationships with loyal customers, the firm offers doorstep services for checking the look, design, wearablity and size of jewellery, delivery of goods (including repairs), and payment collection. The firm allows easy payment terms, if required. It also provides a good exchange deal on a case-to-case basis. “Otherwise, our exchange policy has been fixed since

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years and we do not feel it requires any change now,” says Jain. Customised designing is done for free and regular customers are provided design sketches without confirmed orders. Once the customer approves a design, the firm ensures the exclusivity of the piece by not selling the same design to another customer. Special care is taken in cases where customers belong to a close group or a family or come from the same neighbourhood. “We also educate our clients about jewellery care, give them buying tips and inform them of trend changes for various types of precious jewellery frequently via mobile phone text 34

messages,” Jain reveals. “Above all, we offer a competitive price or sometimes charge a little less than other retailers in order to close deals. And although the firm never offers free jewellery trials, they do offer precious coloured stones on a trial basis for up to a week. “The customized, one-to-one service offered by jewellers like us, is the biggest plus point of a traditional jeweller and branded stores or malls selling jewellery cannot never compete with us,” says a confident Jain, revealing that “these relationship efforts cost us additionally up to 3 per cent on gross sales.” Yogesh Sagar of Vasantbhai Jewellers from Borivli, Mumbai, who

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Nitien Jain

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has retailed gold and diamond jewellery through his showroom since 1993, says that although the firm doesn’t provide extra services, “we offer easy payment terms wherein a customer can pay the amount over a period of up to six months after the purchase on goods worth up to Rs. 500,000. Our exchange schemes and buybacks are strong. We have a loyal clientele who purchase traditional jewellery from us.” Jayesh Jogia of Jayesh Art Jewellers, Mumbai, says, “Our customers trust us. We have been operating since 1976, and our buybacks are better than those selling branded jewellery and we offer instant cash if buyers choose to return jewellery. We don’t have extra overhead charges unlike the malls, which cater to impulse buyers. Also, unlike family jewellers, malls mostly sell smaller items. A customer will never go to a mall to buy bridal sets in gold and diamonds. She is bound to come to traditional family jewellers because of customisation and variety in designs.” H.Mohanlal Jain of Lalchand Hastimal Jewellers (LHJ), Hyderabad, which has three retail outlets, says, “We do maintain very friendly relations with customers and offer extra services such as delivering the jewellery to their residences if they are unable to visit our showroom for some reason. We also offer flexible payment schemes and give them time a period of two to three days to make up their minds about buying a particular piece of jewellery.” LHJ also has a separate sales team to deal with high value customers. “As we deal largely in solitaires, we have different salespeople to concentrate on high-end clients,” he says. As for other clients, Jain says, “Maintaining better payment terms sometimes leads to bad debts, and I guess that we have

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is usually perceived as fair. Branded jewellery transactions also involve straightforward dealing and enhance the buying experience of the customers. However, I would like to add that the branded jewellery sector has yet to mature in terms of increasing the ticket price per product.” Jain of LHJ advises that family jewellers have to be professionally managed; adopt new ways of marketing, and encourage the younger generation to take up management courses. “We have to get away from the old mindset quickly. What our forefathers did was relevant in their time. Today, we have to keep up with the times and be innovative and creative, or else traditional jewellers will soon be a thing of past.” Today’s consumer has developed a liking for shopping ambience, extras like valet parking, customization, good presentation, sales staff with better conversational skills and being treated preferentially. “In order to grow we need to push hard to pamper the modern-day customer,” says Nitien Jain, adding, “Innovation, trust and service are no longer considered to be value additions – they are a necessity. So, if a traditional jeweller has to survive and thrive in today’s scenario, he has to offer something more than just a hallmarked and certified product.”

The Fifth Season for Gold Expressions

to forego about 3 to 4 per cent of our earnings then.” But some jewellery brands too are fighting back with added service for the customer. Hemant Chhabria, head operations, Diti Jewellery (a jewellery brand of Shrenuj & Co. Ltd) says, “When you retail a branded piece of jewellery, the value additions which are offered to the customers are of a different kind. At Diti, for example, we offer a gift with the product like a jewellery cleaning cloth on purchase of diamond-studded gold jewellery or a jewellery cleaning spray on purchase of diamond-studded platinum jewellery. We also offer a 70 per cent value buyback on the purchase price for life, irrespective of metal and diamond prices. The customer can also exchange the product for 100 per cent of its value within one month of purchase. This ensures that customers don’t lose any value when the product has been bought for gifting or if they want another design.” During the festive season, Diti offers gift vouchers which are valid on the next purchase. “In this way we gain loyalty and the customer also gets an incentive to make another jewellery purchase,” says Chhabria. “And these expenses on customers are our investment for creating customer loyalty.” As against what a family jeweller offers, Chhabria comments, “Branded jewellery offers a higher level of commitment in all aspects as compared to generically purchased jewellery. In any branded product, whether apparel, cosmetics or jewellery, the customer is well aware of the stringent quality checks which the products go through and all this is attested to by an authentic certificate and a price which

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