The age-old jeweller next door hasn’t gone away despite the onslaught of brands and modern retail formats. But the battle has moved into high gear. Where the former had the edge with the personal service they offered, the brands have been hitting back with personalized service, customization and a host of other extras. Shanoo Bijlani reports.

Branding has caught on with Indian jewellery consumers in a big way and the many global and national jewellery brands in the country have steadily cornered an increasing share of the market. Market drivers for brands include celebrity endorsements, which have gone down big with Bollywood-mad Indian consumers. The newer retail formats have also heavily influenced the rise of branded jewellery in the country. The buying experience in the new, plush retail showrooms or the trendy outlets in malls – themselves part of a lifestyle revolution in the country – is itself now part of the allure of acquiring a piece of jewellery. And finally, brands addressed a vital issue with jewellery – consumer assurance. Brands boosted consumer confidence with their precisely stated weights of precious metals, gemstones and diamonds as well as their certified qualities.

Industry experts note that branded jewellery’s market share in India is growing at about 30 per cent annually, and this is amply substantiated by the growth registered by many of the national branded names. In the four years of its existence, Gold Plus, a jewellery division of Titan, Tata group, has spread across six states and retails designer gold jewellery through 30 outlets. Started in 1995, Tanishq, another of Titan jewellery retail arm which retails fine, high-end jewellery, today operates more than 100 stores spread in 65 cities across the country. Reliance, which opened its first jewellery retail store in Dhanbad in 2008, has grown to 15 stores today. Almost 60 top international jewellery brands like Harry Winston, Cartier, Bulgari, de Grisogno and Chopard among others have now established themselves in India, bringing their own brand mystique with them.

On the face of it, it appears as though that Indian icon, the generations-old family jeweller, might be an endangered species. Solitaire spoke to some to find out how they were doing in the face of this onslaught and what tactics they had adopted to counter it. It turns out that while the brands may be increasing their market share – one traditional jeweller felt that branded jewellery has taken away 50 per cent of the business from traditional jewellers – the small, unbranded neighbourhood jewellers are still doing very well, for the same reason that the malls and hypermarkets haven’t been able to put the neighbourhood grocer out of business – unmatched personal service.

Most traditional jewellers maintain long-term relationships with their customers by offering a number of incentives such as a week’s free trial of a piece of jewellery, easy payment terms, good exchange deals, and at times act as pawnbrokers when customers need money urgently (only those who are licensed to lend money engage in this business). In the war to retain consumer loyalty, it appears that customer is queen.

JKJ & Sons Jewellers has one showroom in Jaipur and two in Delhi. Kailash Mosun, a partner in the firm and a seventh-generation jeweller, says, “We’ve been in the export and wholesale business for the last 150 years and in retail since 1996 and we know how to hold on to our customers. We have been selling hallmarked products ever since we opened our first retail showroom. To be in this business and gain the trust of clients, one needs to be above board.” Mosun explains that selling 22-karat hallmarked gold jewellery has given their firm an edge in their business because the customer is assured of the gold’s purity. “Our margins are slim, and we sell jewellery at reasonable rates,” he adds. But it is only after we close the deal that our work begins in real earnest. We offer excellent after-sales service. If a customer buys jewellery from us she is bound to get the service JKJ is reputed for. We also service products that she has not bought from us. Above all, each and every customer is treated equally – the one who buys a nose pin or the one who buys an expensive necklace set – and each one is considered special. This way, the woman who buys the nose pin will want to come back to us when she wants to buy an expensive set tomorrow.” JKJ offers healthy buybacks, exchanges, free repair and polishing services and caters to any other need of the customer.