All That Glitters is Gold

Different automated solutions are enhancing the business models of gems and jewellery players

The gems and jewellery sector in India plays a significant role in the economy, contributing around 6-7% of the country’s GDP. Being one of the fastest growing sectors, it is extremely export oriented and labor intensive. The government of India has also declared the sector as a focus area for export promotion based on its potential for growth and value addition. PP Jewellers, Gitanjali, Kalyan Jewellers, Tanishq, Jewelkaari and lot more brands respect the IT industry for providing them solutions which helped them grew over years and adding themselves as renowned jewellery providers to country.

The studies have projected that the country's gems and jewellery market has doubled in recent years due to high technology which is being provided by the IT sector. The growth will be driven by a healthy business environment, government's investor and tech friendly policies and remarkable IT solutions.

India is deemed to be the hub of global jewellery market because of its low costs and availability of high-skilled labor. IT solutions has helped this industry to reach for genuinity in quality, reach for mass market, designing as per customer choice, as well as providing freedom to customers for experiencing designs online and lot more.

Mohit Gupta, Director, PP JewellersMohit Gupta, director of PP Jewellers explained, “My dad, Kamal Gupta founder of PP Jewellers started his business in 1980’s with just employing manual labor. It was a retail business for gold jewellery which was really time consuming and we have to maintain registers of records which use to grasp half of our energy and precious time. The time IT solutions stepped into the industry, the whole scenario changed which made us to reach for more customers with high end designing, manufacturing, styling, tagging, billing, etc. We are also going to develop our online website soon to provide customers an ease to select, shop and suggest. ”

PP Jewellers is taking solutions from Yasui and Co, a Japanese company, which provides designing and high quality casting systems. Yasui has helped PP jewellers to grow in jewellery casting industry. As a casting solution provider, Yasui keeps on supplying a wide variety of products to ensure leadership for its customers in the market.

Innovative IT solutions has always brought a rapid progress in improving quality in varied verticals.  Solution providers tries to increase competitiveness, enjoy successful business by providing productive systems.

Sanjay Sethi, CEO & Co-founder, ShopClues.comSanjay Sethi, CEO and co-founder of ShopClues.com  said, “We saw an immense potential for jewellery in the e-commerce revolution that is happening in the country. The demand for jewellery is always high in a  country like India that treasures ornaments like family heirlooms. It is also a vital part of any wedding occasion. Meanwhile, people are displaying immense trust in the concept of online shopping as it is convenient, time-saving and economical at the same time. We are happy to provide a reputed brand like Gitanjali the platform to showcase its latest collection and are positive about increasing traction on our marketplace through this collaboration across the country.”

IT solutions has helped the segment to produce better products, better designing, safer services, communications with supplier and customers.

Saurav Bhattacharya, President, Gitanjali GroupGitanjali Group president Saurav Bhattacharya says, “At Gitanjali we have been reaching out to young new shoppers over the last few years with various e-commerce initiatives. We are happy to take another step forward into the online shopping revolution that is sweeping through India with this association as a Preferred Partner of ShopClues.com in the gold jewellery segment which gives consumers a wide spectrum of choices”.

Maya Gold from Gitanjali has an exciting range of earrings, pendants and rings crafted in 22k gold with designs that range from the traditional to the exquisite, giving a complete spectrum of choices for daily wear and casual evenings out which is also available on Shopclues.com. Every piece has been assured with a guarantee of purity and the quality of craftsmanship, so that customers can shop and experience with comfort of sitting in their homes.

IT solutions have been contributing to India's gems and jewellery sector in a big way to the country's foreign exchange earnings (FEEs). Government of India has also  viewed the sector as a thrust area for export promotion which will need high-end tech solutions to maintain records and provide healthy services offshore.

Consumers are demanding new designs and varieties in jewellery, and branded jewellers are able to fulfill their changing demands better than the local unorganized players.

Kumar Kannan S, CEO, PurpletabKumar Kannan, CEO and founder of Purpletab brightly stated that am pleased to know IT in Jewellery is gaining prominence as so far it was the unsung propellor of the entire industry. He said, “Along with providing IT solutions we believe in consultative approach to jewellery segment to help them play and provide services in a proper way without wasting much time.”  Purple tab provides solutions such as virtual reality experience, order taking fulfillment and online catalogues.

“It is difficult to understand a customers choices and in this regards we have always tried to provide our  customers to experience digital grooming, client interaction, choice, etc., “ Kannan added.

Digital catalogue, try-on gallery, in your brand app, your store on web, user friendly product display, virtual trial room, estimations and quotations, advanced search, stock management, analytics etc. are some of the solutions company is providing to jewellery brands. Panache, Chennai diamonds, Laxmi jewellery, Brahmanad jewellery, are experiencing solutions which helped them gain their customer satisfaction and better services.

Increase in high end solutions has led to an increase in sales of jewellery, mining and marketing firm of color gemstones, and exploration of variety. Efficiency and completion cannot come without any innovation. Technology has provided key to jewellery segment which helped in better designing and good customer services .

Alpesh Donga, application development and systems integration from Spacecode stated, “ We are providing better method for tracking, managing and securing the diamonds and extremely valuable gemstones that lie at the heart of diamond companies’ operations.”

The system invisibly and efficiently track the movements of stones between sales centers, factories and offices enterprises. SpaceCode’s solution allows management and staff a better way to monitor diamond movements and immediately pinpoint each diamond’s specific location – a huge advantage from both operational as well as a sales perspective.

Today, SmartDevices continuously and automatically scan thousands of diamond parcels or jewellery items simultaneously with complete reliability and with no manual intervention. Following installation and deployment, stock is counted, identified, and located automatically, in real time. This significantly increases the level of accuracy, control, monitoring, and security. Delays, inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and errors associated with workflow control, physical counts and manual locating processes are eliminated and a higher level of sophistication and efficiency is achieved in a way that inventory is managed and monitored.

For jewellery manufacturers, like SpaceCode RFID products link, control, count and analyse all the transactions in real time, offering incredible visibility, traceability, process control and analytics in real time. Real time activity reports and data can be generated at any point in regard to stock movement. The solutions automatically and simultaneously provide rich data sets from all SmartDevices to track all the asset movements and generating business intelligence and reports such as total inventory and its value.

Sharad Nair, CEO of Jewelkaari described how digitalization pushed him to mark his company’s presence across Nation. Jewelkaari is in paper jewellery. “The idea came when my mom brought some paper jewellery from Kerala which is  merely known to anyone. IT solutions has provided us platform like flipkart, amazon, etc. where we are promoting our products and getting good reach for customers”.

For asset management to be effective, organizations are able to create consistent processes to record changes in asset location, condition and availability by using solutions such as productivity, inventory optimization, personalized customer service, employee performance measurement tools and business analytics.

In the coming years, growth in the industry would be highly contributed with the development of IT solution techniques. Established brands are guiding the organized market and are opening opportunities to grow. IT players are also offering schemes to this segment to further boost sales. The demand for jewellery is expected to be supported by the recent positive developments and innovations taking place in IT industry. Government has also recently undertaken various measures to promote investments and to upgrade technology and skills to promote brand India in the international market.