The fast-increasing young population in India is giving the country and its growing economy a unique edge over ‘aging’ the West, Japan and China. According to the Government estimate, India is set to become the world’s youngest country with 64% of its population in the working age group by 2020. As economic analysts put it, “This would add a striking 2% to the GDP growth rate.”
According to a report by Boston Consultancy Group (BCG), online shopping by India’s urban consumers is likely to increase more than double during next two years in the country to 14% from 6% last year. The report titled ‘Digital Influence Study 2013-14’ further states that digital influence is also rapidly expanding to India’s small towns and rural areas because the number of cell phone users has increased. It also says that more than 34% of total internet users in India are from small towns, while 25% are from rural areas.
According to a report published by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), India’s domestic gem and jewellery industry had a market size of INR 2,51,000 crore (USD 41.53 billion) in 2013 with potential to reach INR 5,00,000 to 5,30,000 crore (USD 82.75-87.71 billion) by 2018. These figures are quite encouraging for India’s online jewellery business also which is at a beginner’s stage these days.
The imitation jewellery segment which is less than 1% of the total market today is expected to grow quickly in smaller cities while in real jewellery segment, the existing players have been achieving around 100% growth. At present, India has one of the lowest Internet penetrations for women across developing nations. Only 8.4 % of the female population is online in India; however the figure is set to grow in near future. Online players maintain that women-centric categories like jewellery will surely see real growth in India with gradual erosion of gender gap in Internet penetration.
Talking about India’s online jewellery business, Head of Ecommerce at Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Raj Shah says, “If you talk about only fine diamond jewellery online market it is still on very nascent stage, people are still gaining confidence to buy such a high value products online just because in India when it comes to buying gold or diamond jewellery products, people would like to experience the product first before spending huge amount. To fill that gap, we are working on different strategies to ease the buying process and give customer a hassle free experience.”
Speaking about the growth of online jewellery business, Mr. Raj says, “Ecommerce business has completely changed the buying experience of the consumer where with the help of smart phones and at computer’s mouse click, wide range of options are available from which they can easily do hassle free, people are becoming more tech savvy and would like to spend more time on internet. As day by internet users are increasing, so online industry is growing at very fast pace.”
Talking about Hari Krishna’s E marketing share in its actual yearly sale, Mr. Raj says, “It would be too early to comment on it as we are experimenting different verticals of e-marketing but getting really good response through digital marketing way. Our prime focus would always remain the Best Quality and Good Customer Service and we will always be in a continuous process of improving it.”
So, online jewellery marketing may be in a beginner’s stage these days but it is growing with a fast pace and certainly has a very bright future.
Posted by Suresh Chotai
