Updating brand image through a premium sub-brand, tech overhaul

Ankur Chauhan, Owner, Kanak Jewellers, New Delhi, joined the family-run jewellery business towards the end of 2017. Being a fourth-generation jeweller, he was fascinated with gems and jewellery since his childhood days. An accounting graduate, he was passionate about jewellery design. He had completed a jewellery designing course from IIGJ-Delhi in 2019 and a diamond grading course from GIA.

Developing a sub-brand

When I joined the company, I observed that we had a traditional operating system and mindset. The customers used to bargain a lot with the staff. Although the business was moving at a usual pace, it was important for us to change the existing image of the brand and come up with new ideas to drive up profitability. It is then that I decided to develop a sub-brand in 2021 and named it ‘Arshi’. It has a separate section inside the existing store specially designed for the newly launched sub-brand.

Under ‘Arshi’, we designed a different range of diamond jewellery for all kinds of customers ranging from small-ticket, budget-friendly and premium pieces. We also included Italian jewellery, thus gaining attention from modern-day customers. We overhauled our social media promotional tactic while working on Arshi. Apart from the usual promotions, we created a team to approach new as well as old customers who have not shopped from us for a long time. Retargeting them with new ranges on offer helped receive a tremendous response. The number of customers has increased by at least 15-20% after the launch of the sub-brand.

Dedicated Team for Alteration

Previously, we didn’t have any policy for alteration and repair as not much focus was given to it. The salesperson used to deal with the repair work and it was their job to get it from the concerned karigars in due time. However, this responsibility was imposed over and above their usual sales KRA, due to which work on alteration and repair faced negligence. As a result, we were unable to meet delivery deadlines and the customer experience was getting affected.

So, in the middle of 2021, I came up with a standard policy for alteration and repairs by creating a separate department of 2-3 people to monitor the processes. Now, the alteration and repair works have been streamlined. I have computerized the whole process to improve efficiency. The dedicated staff have also started collecting data of the customers who order for alteration and have their jewellery repaired. So, in a way, collection of a lot of data has eventually helped us to understand customer psyche, plan our promotions and reach out to more people.

ERP for Data analysis

An ERP system,which helped in analyzing all forms of current and historical customer and sales data. ERP also 

The ERP system was designed in such a way that the entire store inventory was categorized into sub-sections such as stocks depending on ticket size, orders and movement speed. With ERP, we have been able to store all the crucial data regarding sales, orders, customer KYC details, etc on the cloud platform rather than on our system. We discovered more secure and transparent ways of tracking the entire stock of the showroom. Before, we used to think that most of our sales during in-store exhibitions are happening in small-ticket sizes.

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller India News