IIJS Premiere is one of the biggest jewellery events in Asia. Undoubtedly, the show sets the tone, ahead of the festive and wedding seasons, offering a boost to the entire industry. It is a nerve centre for the industry, so to speak. With the ongoing holiday season, there was a definite lull within the industry. However, retailers were eager to replenish their stores with new inventory and IIJS gives them the right platform to do so. There was much to look forward to this time around – firstly, the show is taking place after 2.5 long years in Mumbai, the city where the show was conceptualised at first. Secondly, the show in an effort to become more sustainable and eco-friendlier, adopted a more uniform approach wherein all the stalls looked similar and exhibitors were not given the option to customise as was the case in the previous years (this did not go down well with quite a few exhibitors). Thirdly, retailers are expected to have a good innings this Diwali, and the show was perfectly timed. “Import duty hike on gold and price volatility don’t seem to be affecting the end consumer as much or the demand. This year we will have a bumper Diwali and IIJS has been timed keeping that in mind,” said Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC.
Close to 1800 exhibitors participated in the show this year, including 400 new exhibitors. 7 halls were spread across 75,000 sq mts. All halls were packed to the brim, with more number of unique visitors coming into the show every day. Gold, jadau and studded gold jewellery did extremely well, however loose diamonds and colour gemstones received a mixed response.
Day one witnessed the highest footfall amounting to 26,000 + visitors. Be that as it may, the first day was also chaotic in terms of traffic congestion in front of NESCO, added to that, hundreds of visitors couldn’t enter the show because of technical glitches. Infrastructural hurdles like noneffective aircons and network issues were extremely bothersome.
Day two saw 12,132 unique visitors (exclusive of day one) and day three witnessed 7350 unique visitors (exclusive of day one and day two).
Mixing it up, a good move?
Unlike the previous years, the organisers decided to mix up all the categories across all six halls – this move inconvenienced several exhibitors as well as retailers. Usually, retailers plan their meetings based on categories – for instance, on day one, a buyer might plan to visit a particular hall which only has manufacturers who specialise in gold, and on day two, he might plan a visit to another hall to meet the couture jewellery exhibitors. However, this time as companies were disbursed, and retailers had to navigate through all the halls time and again. “The idea behind mixing up categories was to give a level playing field to all the exhibitors. In the previous years, many exhibitors have gone unnoticed because typically a retailer might just look for gold companies and might not have had the chance to see new exhibitors. So many retailers told us that they have met plenty of new suppliers at the show this time,” said Shailesh Sangani, Convener, National Exhibitions, GJEPC.
But many exhibitors felt that this was an excellent move – sharing space with different categories gave them an opportunity to be discovered by new retailers, which didn’t happen in the previous years. “Ultimately, the KRA of IIJS Premiere is to generate good business. As organisers that is our prerogative. Exhibitors are satisfied with the business they have conducted,” said Colin Shah.
Price points and creativity in design are key
All categories did well this time – there was a mad rush in halls that had gold manufacturers. Couture and bridal jewellery did well too. However, buyers are particular about price points and they have been looking for something unique and off beat. Jewellery replete with antique finish in light weight, heavy weight sets over 200 grams, Victorian-inspired jewellery and temple sets saw a lot of enquiries. Fusion antique also did extremely well at the show.
New announcements
IIJS Signature is scheduled to take place between Jan 5-8, 2023. What will be different with IIJS Signature this time is that it will be in the same scale as IIJS Premiere, with the same bandwidth, across all 7 halls. It will be yet another full-fledged show. IIJS Tritiya in Bangalore is scheduled to take place between March 17-20, 2023. The booth allotment in Tritiya will however be different. Exhibitors who commit to participating in all three shows, will get the same booth allotment (in Signature) and space. However, should an exhibitor choose not to participate in one of the shows, they will have to go back in line for new booth allotment and space. Also, exhibitors who want to participate in all three shows are eligible for discount in Signature and Tritiya.
HighlightsPROS
- Standardised booths made the show sustainable
- Mixing of categories offered equal opportunities to all exhibitors
- Good business across all four days
- Show gave the industry a much-needed boost amidst the holiday lull
- Retailers were able to meet new suppliers
- Timing of the show is perfect ahead of festive and wedding seasons
- Streamlining of entry and exit points, a great move!
CONS
- Lack of proper infrastructure
- Non-functioning ACs on day one
- Poor network coverage and WIFI
- Inability to customise booths left a few exhibitors unhappy
- Mixing of booths led to a lot of confusion – retailers were unable to find their suppliers
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