Precious jewellery is now about fashion even in the mass and lightweight category: Hitesh Adesara

Hitesh Adesara, Director, Keshavji Chhaganlal Jewellers Pvt Ltd shares his valuable insights on mass and lightweight jewellery categories and how the consumers are no longer tempted by traditional designs. Read this post to find out more:

—Shubham Dasgupta

Keshavji Chhaganlal Jewellers is a household name in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, the city where it was founded in 1925. In those days, people bought jewellery as an investment. They were less concerned about finish than about the quantity of the gold itself. Of course there was a small number of very rich people as well, who delighted in high-quality, high-cost jewellery.

Standarised designs lose sheen

Affluent buyers of today have similar concerns. In the mass jewellery segment, however, things are very different. One of the differences is that there is little demand, today, for standardised designs.

Not so long ago, my Bengali karigars used to make jewellery pieces with as little as 8 gm of gold. The low price point and scarce material imposed design limitations that today are customers would never be willing to accept.

Customers now demand good-looking jewellery, featuring intricate designs, but at a reasonable rate. And young people make up the lion’s share of buyers today. They are not interested in heavy jewellery. To them, comfort and ease of use score over showy grandeur.

That said, Indians have not lost their instinctive love of precious jewellery. It is a matter of timing. The right time to upsell to the young, educated woman of today, we have found, is during her bridal shopping.

Return value lures less

Another conspicuous change is that these consumers are no longer tempted by traditional designs. They turn their mangalsutras into bracelets, and “workwear jewellery” is a genuinely competitive segment.

The educated young woman is not beguiled by grand old jewellery pieces, such as the bajubandh. Even if she can afford a heavy or vintage design, she will buy a light and trendy one instead.

Over time, consumers have developed an appreciation of design, and come to pay less attention to the return value associated with the precious stones and metal.

At Keshavji Chhaganlal Jewellers, we were quick to see the opportunity in this shift. We played a vital role in introducing fashion-friendly, lightweight jewellery to Jamshedpur.

Only design matters

Our designs communicate really well with buyers. We have become synonymous with priceless experiences. With consumers affirming their confidence in our brand, we have been able to build a broader inventory in platinum, 18k rose gold, white gold, yellow gold and diamond. Our lightweight Italian jewellery vertical is only five years old, and is doing pretty well with Turkish and Italian designs.  Focusing on this segment has opened another opportunity for us.

No longer can a retailer ignore good design, even in lower-priced jewellery intended for the mass market.  Design is the right way to build value for customers and keep your brand relevant to new buyers. These are consumers, after all, who see jewellery as part of their lifestyle and not a store of value.