alentine’s Day Sales

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Love

alentine’s Day has joined the ranks of Diwali and the wedding season as an important jewellery-buying occasion. Though sales

happen on a smaller scale, the focus is primarily on gifting jewellery items that fall in the ‘affordable’ category. Nevertheless, retailers and brands alike have latched on to this opportunity and tried to engage consumers through aggressive promotions to convert Valentine’s Day into another important jewellery sales driver. Jewellery malls

The emotional hook works wonders and this year too the season of love didn’t leave jewellers disappointed. Sales of lightweight diamond, gold and platinum jewellery grew 15% and more over last year, reports Erum Ali Qureshi.

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like Gold Souk went all out with themed decorations and activities to mark the day of love and boost sales this season.

Since Valentine’s Day appeals mostly to the younger generation, retailers and brands have been quick to establishing an online presence and utilising social media to draw consumer interest for Valentine’s Day. Online competitions, promotions and give-aways ensured robust sales and also contributed to building overall brand recognition. Typically, most brands and retailers reported heart-shaped jewellery as bestsellers, but some like D’damas broke the monotony by introducing jewellery with cluster and floral designs set with solitaires.

Branded fareGitanjali-owned Asmi, Sangini, Nakshatra, D’damas, Gili and Diya brands saw robust sales in the run-up to Valentine’s Day. Gili’s diamond-studded jewellery in 18 karat gold which typically has rings, earrings and pendants, included necklaces and bracelets this time. The brand offered 20% off on the entire range of products for the occasion. Speaking about the launch of platinum couple bands for Valentine’s Day, Rahul Vira, chief executive, Gili India Ltd., informed, “For us this has been the second best month for sales in the year — we have grown by 35% over last year with the expansion of new exclusive brand outlets and entry into tier II and III towns.” Plain platinum bands did well in the metros; and pendants in the price range of R15,000 to R20,000 also sold well.

Asmi launched two sub-brands – Tvesa, a concept that balances gold cut work with diamonds, and Inika, consisting of curvilinear forms with a generous sprinkling of diamonds. “Valentine sales for Asmi grew 30% over last year. Rings, pendants and earrings with the average selling price between R20,000 and R55,000 moved well,” Pankaj Shah, chief executive, Asmi Diamond Jewellery noted.

Chirag Bagaria, marketing manager of Diya Diamonds, disclosed that Valentine’s Day drove sales of rings, pendants, earrings and nose pins. “Similar to every year,

sales grew 20% year-on-year due to the introduction of more merchandise in the lower price bands. Products starting from R5,000 to R45,000 moved fast,” he said.

Breaking the monotony of Valentine-specific heart-shaped designs D’damas introduced pendants, earrings and rings in cluster and floral designs set with solitaires for the occasion. “Our Valentine’s collection featured contemporary diamond jewellery ranging from everyday wear designs to elaborate pieces,” R.K. Menon chief operation officer, D’damas India Jewellery, stated.

“Consumers want designs that are not only heart-shaped or festive-specific, but which are elegant and pieces you can identify with,” Menon explained. “In addition to the 20% discount on diamond jewellery, D’damas also offered 30% off on making charges. Solitaire pendants and earrings up to R75,000 sold well. We have observed that this year consumers are willing to spend more money which is very encouraging,” he added. Nakshatra, too, saw a 30% increase in sales with brisk sale of rings, earrings, pendants and tanmaniyas.

Pankaj Shah of Sangini said, “The concept of Valentine’s Day goes well with our brand philosophy as Sangini celebrates togetherness. This year our sales went up by 50% over last year.” Sangini’s bestselling items were two-piece sets ranging from R27,000 to R58,000, pendants from R9,000 to R32,000 and rings between R7,000 and R30,000. Ce

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Kisna, from the Hari Krishna Group, saw a 5-10% increase in sales in the run-up to Valentine’s Day. “We did not launch any special collection or engage in promotions for the occasion, but our regular collections that feature heart-shaped pendants and rings and a few earring designs, priced between R9,900 and R21,100, did well,” stated director Ghanshyam Dholakia.

New entrant into the retail space Kama Jewellery from Kama Schachter reported healthy sales for merchandise between R10,000 and R100,000 during the Valentine’s Day week. The brand retails 18 karat diamond-studded jewellery under Kama Love and Kama Platinum through an exclusive outlet recently launched in Mumbai.

Online buyingIncreasingly, social media and online buying are gaining a foothold in the traditional Indian retail space. This year several jewellery brands utilised social media to drive sales and draw footfalls into their stores.

Gitanjali’s Diya held a ‘Dream Date’ contest on social media websites whereby winners got a chance to meet their favourite celebrities. Consumers responded with more than 6,000 entries in a span of seven days from over 12 cities across India.

Kama Jewellery organised a ‘Love-a-thon’ on Facebook for which they got over 40,000 fans on their page in less than a month. Prizes

worth approximately R800,000, included 30 ‘Kama Love’ diamond rings, free dinner, movie and gift vouchers. Speaking about the initiative Colin Shah, managing director, Kama Schachter said, “We plan to have social media as a regular feature in our marketing plan. We are already active on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and also have regular blogs to engage potential customers.” The ‘Love-a-thon’ was also promoted at retail stores to engage offline customers. “We expect to open 20 exclusive outlets in the next five years in major metros and increase the distribution of our brands,” informed Shah.

Laxmi Diamond-owned Cygnus diamond jewellery brand, too, launched a ‘U & Me’ contest on the online platforms of Shoppers Stop, JewelNext and Future Bazaar. Consumers could avail of a 20% discount on jewellery purchased through these online forums. On the Facebook page, Cygnus invited consumers to post their love stories and the one with most ‘Likes’ won a diamond pendant.

Hemant Chhabria, head operations, Diti Jewellery, a brand of Shrenuj & Co, stated that their bestselling category, couple bands, were further developed and promoted for Valentine’s Day. “This occasion sees more encouraging numbers in the shop-in-shop segment. Value additions in the form of complimentary laser engraving on rings, jewellery cleaning cloths with every purchase and discounts worked well to boost sales for couple bands ranging from R20,000 to R35,000 for Diti.”

“We plan to have social media as a regular feature in our marketing plan. We are already active on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and also have regular blogs to engage potential customers.”potential customers.”

“We plan to have social

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Gold Souk celebrated Valentine's Day in grand style.

Muralikrishnan B., country manager, eBay India informs that although Valentine’s Day in particular is not as big a driver for jewellery sales as much as the wedding and festive seasons are, eBay witnessed a 30% jump in the number of jewellery sales transactions ahead of Valentine’s Day.

Malls & independentsGold Souk, India’s first jewellery mall, organised a four-day ‘Valentine Fest’ comprising various activities like Best Message competition, Flea Market, Lucky Draw, interactive games and free make-overs to increase footfalls. Subhash Verma, chief executive, Aerens Gold Souk Group, said, “Consumers are splurging more on lightweight jewellery for their loved ones on occasions like Valentine’s Day. To our delight, we received over 4,000 serious buyers.”

At Gold Souk, Gurgaon, Hardik Jewels reported a 15% jump in sales on Valentine’s Day, while Diamond Hut saw a 10% increase. Avenue Montaigne, a diamond jewellery brand registered a 20% jump in sales.

Among the independent jewellers, Mahesh Notandass offered a 15% discount voucher with every purchase to promote sales during the run-up to Valentine’s Day. The retailer reported healthy sales figures that surpassed those recorded during the same period last year. “Striking statement pieces including pendant sets,

necklaces, rings and earrings with square-cut diamonds set in gold, and solitaire diamonds were bestsellers from our classic and vintage collections,” Notandass said.

Upscale retailer Ceres launched its ‘Season of Love’ collection created with top quality heart-shaped solitaires and accented with pink and white diamonds. Managing director Nitin Goenka informed that sales were at par with last year’s figures despite no promotions or discounts being offered. “Two segments sold well – evening, cocktail and everyday wear under R6 lakh were bought by young consumers and bespoke jewellery created for specific orders fetched over R25 lakh,” he informed.

Rahul Singh, head – retail marketing and communications, Shree Ganesh Jewellery House Ltd., said the firm’s retail brand Gaja reported a 25% increase in Valentine’s Day sales of its lightweight heart-shaped pendants, earrings, rings and bracelets in diamond and gold. This year,

apart from the regular discounts, Gaja had early-bird prizes like jewellery boxes, watches and clocks. “The items that did well were heart-shaped rings, pendants and earrings and the response for solitaire rings and gold engagement bands were very encouraging,” he concluded.

Valentine’s Day has firmly established its foothold as a significant jewellery-buying occasion. Retailers have wised up to the fact that there is a huge young population of potential jewellery buyers who can be reached through interactive promotions and different mediums such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Jewellery companies today invest time and money in designing special need-based products that are suitable for the occasion and light on the pocket. Their homework and preparedness has shown that right inventory always reaps rewards. The first major jewellery-buying event of 2012 has hit all the right notes. n

“Valentine’s Day has firmly established its foothold as a significant jewellery-buying occasion. Retailers have wised up to the fact that there is a huge young population of potential jewellery buyers.” brand Gaja reported a 25% increase in

Valentine’s Day sales of its lightweight heart-shaped pendants, earrings, rings and bracelets in diamond and gold. This year,

potential jewellery buyers.”

witnessed a 30% jump in the number of jewellery sales transactions ahead of Valentine’s Day.

Malls & independentsGold Souk, India’s first jewellery mall,

statement pieces including pendant sets,

“Valentine’s Day has firmly

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