Jewellers betting on light-weight, new designs this festival
Bharat Bafna, a regular gold jewellry buyer, was happy shopping 120 gm of plain gold ornaments in the popular Zaveri Bazaar here on Thursday though high bullion prices are feared to have scared away many customers.
“We found Turkish-design jewellry for the first time in store, which prompted us to buy a set of plain gold ornaments (including necklace, earrings, and rings) for daily wear,” said Bafna. Turkish-design jewellry is light in weight and spread with a wire-like gap, and has an attractive finish. Hence it gives a look of bulk weight with low grammage of gold content. Initially, such jewellry was imported from Turkey. But, now Indian gold jewellry makers are making Turkish-design jewellry with the same finish.
“Apart from Turkish, kundan design, antique pieces and traditional jewellry are also major attractions for customers this festive season,” said Kumar Jain, director, Umedmal Tilokchand Zaveri.
Jewellers are giving discounts and incentives, along with new designs, ahead of Diwali, which, along with Dhunteras, are major festivals for selling gold.
Jewellers continue to face headwinds in sales due to high gold prices which have jumped 20 per cent in the last one year to trade on Thursday at ~38,236 per 10 grams. Consumer sentiment was skewed towards disposable accessories like mobiles and electronic gazettes, freebies and discounts have successfully in favour of jewellry in the last few days.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Gems and Jewellry Show (GJS), Anantha Padmanabhan, managing director of Chennai-based NAC Jewellers and chairman of All India Gems and Jewellry Domestic Council (GJC), said, “We have never seen dozens of designs in every segment of gold ornaments in the past. Jewellers are attracting customers through offers of new designs with light weight jewellry this festive season. While consumer demand was very weak until recently on high gold prices, we have seen a revival in the last couple of days.” With the wedding season approaching, buyers have started taking advantage of offers and freebies ahead of compulsive buying on the occasion of marriage.
Leading jewellry maker Tanishq offers 25 per cent discount on full value of diamond jewellry and equal percentage of discount on making charges of gold ornaments.