It’s the season of light-weight, matching coloured stone jewellery. During the lean season, it makes sense for the buyers to keep the cash register ringing for the traders in this otherwise dull season. The bitter memory of recent strike is fading away from the jewellery market and it’s started looking up. Good days are ahead as monsoon has arrived and is supposed to stay normal and the wedding season is closer in sight, says Arun Kumar Shrivastav.

In the jewellery markets of Delhi, there are some signs of improving business sentiment, a pleasant departure from the past months when business remained tepid. In a move that may boost the traders’ sagging confidence a great deal, the government has rolled back its decision to re-impose one per cent tax collection at source (TCS) on cash purchase of gold and diamond jewellery of Rs. 2 lakh and above, and raised the threshold to Rs. 5 lakh, with effect from June 1.

Krishan Alreja, Regional Manager (North), All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation says “This is a welcome relief for the industry as the earlier threshold of Rs. 2 lakh was too low for gold or diamond jewellery, especially when you are shopping for special occasions such as marriage.

Jewellery markets are back to life and look poised for a happy wedding season ahead. But for the moment, its small-sets and sundry stones that’s catching the fancy of buyers.

While there is no particular item selling like hot cake in this lean season, light-weight jewellery items are selling faster. Jewellery pieces with coloured stones subtly standing out are more sought-after as they canmatch with the dress colour and make for a composite and bold fashion experience.,,

Says Ramesh Khanna of DASS Jewellers, Sect-23, Gurgaon Light-weight jewellery and small sets are the trend of the season. More trendy and fashionably-designed jewellery pieces studded with coloured stones to match the colour of sarees and suits are in demand.

All kinds of coloured stones are popular. If emerald is expensive and one has to buy a green stone, jet and quartz jewellery does the job. Diamond jewellery is also very popular. Just because of it being a lean period, sales are slow. But after the monsoon, sales will pick up,” he says.

Among the big players from the organised sector, Kalyan Jewellers has recently introduced Mudra Collection of bridal jewellery and choker sets. Armed with over 100 branchesin India and abroad and over 600 customer care centres across the country, Kalyan Jewellers has on offer products for everyone.

Sachin Kumar, a salesman at Kalyan Jewellers’ Pitampura showroom, says, “We have recently introduced our newestrange of jewellery under Mudra Collection, where the best of bridal and choker jewellery is on offer. Heavy-weight jewellery sets of necklace, earrings, bangles are priced in the range of Rs. 10 lakh.

Under Apporva Collection, Kalyan Jewellers has lightweight choker sets starting from Rs. 3 lakh and in Anokhi Collection, jewellery sets made with unpolished and uncut diamonds are available in the range of Rs. 3-4 lakh.

Kamini Taneja, sales supervisor at Mehrasons Jewellers at Greater Kailash-1 says “In diamond jewellery sets,compressed setting designs are popular. In compressed setting, a round diamond is given the look of a princess-cut diamond.

Among the coloured stones, blue sapphire and pink ruby are popular. In the gold jewellery sets, antique designs and different colours such as copper, brass are being preferred.

Online stores making their presence felt
In the domestic gems and jewellery market, which is dominated by family-owned businesses where reputation and clientele are built over time, online stores are making great inroads. As of now, they are not posting similarly great financial results but they are growingly becoming trendsetters for different seasons, redefining the fashion landscape both for craftsmen and traders.

Their client base is again mostly youth, who shop for fashion, unlike those who visit stores for more formal interface with the product they want to buy. The online onslaught is led by an altogether new set of entrepreneurs, who are not necessarily from the gems and jewellery industry background and could be from IT or marketing. They are jumping on the bandwagon and consolidating their businesses and brands as change is in the air as far as retail distribution of jewellery product goes. Surprisingly, this is not eating into conventional showrooms’ business.

Online stores are more focused on catering to random buying choices and have on offer individual items such as rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, mangalsutra, watches and accessory items. They target buyers are those with a budget of Rs. 5,000-50,000,” informs a trader. As per industry estimates, total online retail market in India is worth about $6 billion. That may grow to $22 billion by 2018. The online jewellery market may be worth as much as $2.5 billion in the next five to 10 years. Currently, it accounts for less than 0.1 per cent of the $55 billion jewellery market.

While most prominent jewellery brands have set up their own online stores, others are also making use of Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18.com and other online marketplaces to sell their products. Gitanjali Jewels, which owns and distributes eight out of the top ten jewellery brands in the country including Gili, Nakshatra, Asmi, D’Damas, Sangini and Diya, has www. gitanjalishop.com as its online arm. Amrapali Jewels, which specialises in ethnic jewellery designs and silver jewellery has www.tribebyamrapali.com and PC Jeweller’s online presence is through www.wearyourshine. com. BlueStone, jewelsouk. com, caratlane.com are other important online players, without or negligible showroom presence.