Hyderabad:
As the old adage goes, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” jewellery makers are banking on this idea to introduce innovative concepts such as jewellery lounges to make women feel more precious like the precious stone itself.
Jewellery brands such as PC Jewellers have come up with concepts such as ‘Luxury with Literature’ (lounge format) where high-network individuals (HNIs) can select designs from these lounges.
According to Sanjeev Bhatia, chief financial officer of PC Jewellers, the lounges are for high-networth individuals (HNIs). “We want to focus on this segment where jewellery pieces don’t cost less than Rs 5 lakh,” he told this correspondent.
The lounge is a flagship concept of PC Jewellers that includes the literature of the ensemble, explaining the making of the jewellery, its constituents and the theme that engages the customer towards a particular piece.
Bhatia adds: “Given that HNIs opt for top jewellery designers for exquisite pieces, we want to grab that pie and be a brand that introduces such a collections.”
Apart from this, even online jewellers such as Caratalane.com has launched an offline ‘Solitaire Lounge’.
While experts at this lounge guide buyers on diamond or solitaire purchases, the purchase can either be made on their website or at the experience lounge.
While offline lounges are for traditional customers who are not very comfortable purchasing high-value products online, e-commerce players see its as a different ballgame.
Jewelsnext.com’s ‘Virtual Jewellery Experience Lounge’ proves to be a game changer in the e-commerce space, says Gaurav S. Issar, CEO of Jewelsnext.com
“After the integration of the Virtual Jewellery Experience Lounge JewelsNext hopes to cross the 100 transactions a day, adding to the projected turnover. JewelsNext would also be licensing this technology and generating additional revenue of Rs 8-10 crores.”
Whether online or offline, diamond jewellery has its own set of buyers and will always grow, says Bhatia, who adds that gold still contributes to 70 per cent of the jewellery purchases in India while diamond jewellery grabs 30 per cent of the market share.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Business-Tech / DC / by Tejaswani Pagadala / November 11th, 2013