Indian Jewellers Embrace E-Commerce to Tap $22 Billion Online Market - Read Now

The Indian jeweller needs to be quite agile in response to the shift towards e-commerce, which is expected to fetch a large slice of the estimated $22 billion online business. In India, traditionally, purchases of gold and jewellery have been made after meeting the person, especially the local jewellery seller, when it comes to marriages and festivals. As the e-commerce segment grows, jewellers are rapidly shifting to make digital presence and catch up with the shift in consumer preference and new sales opportunities.

Gitanjali Gems is the first to join the online wave.

Gitanjali Gems is India's largest retailer of diamond and gold jewelry and leads from the front. It foresees online sales growth at 20% in the next three years, from current 1%. All this reflects growing consumer comfort with purchases that can be made sitting at home and growing demand in the jewelry segment for the convenience of home delivery.

For this purpose, Gitanjali has partnered with some of the leading e-commerce portals such as Amazon, Flipkart, and eBay, and customers can browse and buy jewelry and get delivered at their doorsteps. According to Mehul Choksi, chairman, Gitanjali Group, "Indian consumers prefer buying jewelry where they get the experience of 'touching and feeling' it before buying, but the purchasing behavior is changing fast because of the convenience factor associated with online shopping.".

Ratan Tata and BlueStone: Potential Investment in Online Jewelry

The Indian e-commerce jewelry market is a great investment opportunity for most investors. This has attracted the former chairman of India's Tata Group, Ratan Tata, who invested in the Bangalore-based online jewelry store, BlueStone. Other digital platforms such as BlueStone are likely to benefit from the rise in internet penetration in India as well as the shift by consumers in their spending to online platforms.

What BlueStone has tried to do is to tap that value stream of a customer looking for good quality assurance and convenient shopping. The high-quality jewelry and the added convenience of home delivery make BlueStone appear to be part of a very general trend of digital jewelry retail that combines a tech-savvy consumer looking at trusted brands online with an active internet life.

Substantial Extension with the Existing Market Base

Gitanjali Gems already has over 4,000 points of sales in India and also has a quite significant presence in the international markets like the US, Middle East, and Europe. With going live online, the brand will reach even higher commonality as, according to Gartner Inc. and CLSA Asia Pacific Markets report, the Indian e-commerce market for jewellery will rise from $6 billion to $22 billion by 2018. Among them have been large numbers of this surge base, driven by free delivery services, competitive pricing, and easy online access.

Changing Consumer Preferences and Market Projections

With increasingly more consumers desiring easy, swift access to products, jewelers' digital strategies comply with a trend toward e-commerce that has reached across various business lines. As the gold market in India shifts to these preferences, eased import restrictions on gold bars and coins have provided jewelers with an opportunity to add more online sales options. The shift will lead to "significant sales growth across segments," says Gartner Inc.