Jewellery Industry Needs To Innovate On Product, Customer Experience: Tanishq CEO

The jewellery industry needs to innovate on the product side and customer experience and connect with special occasions to woo customers back to shop amid soaring gold prices, Tanishq CEO Ajoy Chawla has said. Indian's love for gold has been 'legendary' and customers will always be there for the precious yellow metal, said Chawla, who is also the CEO designate of Titan, told PTI.

Over soaring gold prices due to global uncertainties, he suggested the industry should adapt to such challenges.

"Their requirement may not be able to keep up with the pace at which the (gold) price is going up. So, they may adjust their budgets a little bit, but we as an industry have to give customers lightweight gold. We have to either reduce the weight of the piece and still make it look beautiful, or reduce the carat. So, both vectors we have tried out, and there is a good response to both." he said.

The industry is coping and trying to adapt to the impact of surging prices through product engineering, design, technology, and even by improving the alloy of gold for 22-carat gold in a transparent way with the customers.

The gold prices have gone up by over 40 per cent over the last year. Tanishq, the leading branded jewellery maker, in its latest quarter update, said price volatility has affected the consumer sentiments and 'buyer growth was flat' for its flagship brands Tanishq, Mia and Zoya and CaratLane.

On predictions of further northward movement in international gold prices due to the current geopolitical tension and economic uncertainty, Chawala said these realities and the industry will have to innovate.

"We have to innovate on product, we have to innovate on customer experience because ultimately a need state we have to create." he said.

There is always a special emotion when people buy jewellery as it is bought for special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, engagements, milestones and nowadays for everyday wear also, especially young working women.

"So, we need to be able to innovate by celebrating the emotion, celebrating the customer and giving her something really beautiful and innovative in terms of design as well as construction." he said.

Though 22 carat is the most sold in India, Tanishq had earlier brought out 18 carat in certain regions, but it is still an experiment.

"5-6 years back, 14 carat studded jewellery was not acceptable, only 18 carat studded jewellery. Now, 14-carat studded jewellery is acceptable." he said, adding that 'certain players have gone in with 9-carat studded also'.

Chawla further noted that the per capita income is also increasing. And now, people want to experience the joy of buying jewellery studded with diamonds and precious stones.

Besides gold, India is the second-largest market for diamonds. Tanishq, in partnership with De Beers Group, has launched Tanishq Diamond Expertise Centres, focused on providing clarity and transparency about diamonds, especially lab-grown diamonds.

These centres will be manned by a trained gemologist whose job will be to educate the customer and demonstrate with transparency, as there is a lot of possibility of mixing of lab-grown diamonds with natural diamonds.

"We have just set up three such centres in Bangalore, but we will be rolling it out across the country. In the next two years, over the entire Tanishq network, but within this financial year, we are expecting to add 200 of our stores with this centre." he said.