Jewellery is an emotional and occasion led-purchase, says expert

New Delhi: Diwali is known for gifting and jewellery tops the list, with the focus on buying gold and diamonds. ORRA jewellery, a trusted diamond jewellery brand is gearing up for the festive and bridal season.

As they open their 50th store in the country, IANSlife caught up with Dipu Mehta, Managing Director, ORRA, to find out how the company plans to ramp up its now 50 company-owned and operated stores, expanding its retail presence in Tier-1 and 2 cities and target the millennial segment.

Read Excerpts:

The brand is expanding in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, is brick and mortar the way forward to create a presence in this segment?

ORRA currently is expanding in metros plus tier-2 cities. But we aren't opening stores in any new markets. We are only opening in markets where we are already present. We are increasing the number of stores within cities as the demand in jewellery buying has also increased. Currently we are present in 25 cities with 50 stores and by the end of the month we would be launching another seven stores.

Also with a category like jewellery, it is important to have brick and mortar stores as the customers like to see and hold higher value jewellery before purchasing. Jewellery buying is an important decision to the customers and having a store gives them that assurance.

Jewellery is recession proof do you agree and why?

Jewellery buying in India has always been an emotional and occasion led purchase. It is also considered as a great investment. The pandemic has affected all industries and the purchase pattern of consumers has slowed down. We wouldn't call it recession proof but due to the festive season coming up, we predict a good season for all retailors.

The small Indian wedding doesn't mean that jewellery gets minimal, it just means people are investing more in jewellery. Please elaborate on how the brand's consumer behaviour has shifted in this regards.

Weddings in the family has always been a strong motivator for bridal jewellery purchase. It doesn't matter if the wedding is on a large scale or small scale, the kind of jewellery worn has been large. The only difference we see now is due to the pandemic and the limited number of guests in weddings the families are spending more money than before on buying diamond jewellery. We have seen the customers upgrade to higher value diamond necklaces than ever before.

The brand is the only one to offer 0 per cent interest EMI on diamond jewellery. Please share the idea behind this and what is the impact it has had on sales?

The idea came from the insight that during a wedding in the family, the father of the bride is always the most worried about all the wedding expenses. At ORRA, we understand this and decided to offer 0 per cent interest EMI.

We are the only brand offering 0 per cent interest EMI on diamond jewellery and we have seen a great response from customers. Offering this has led a lot of customers to upgrade the jewellery and purchase larger pieces. We are seeing a growing trend of customers who prefer buying jewellery on EMI and to pay it in equal monthly installments instead of paying the whole amount in one go.

The millennial and Gen Z as a segment, how important are they to you and are you doing any digital marketing for this audience?

The millennial and Gen z customers are extremely important to us and we launched our 'Desired Collection' specially to target this age group and style. This generation has a distinct style and make their own decisions, they are tech savvy and are comfortable making jewellery purchases on our e-commerce website. They love a good deal along with great designs and quality products. Our customers are extremely engaged with us on our social media handles and we ensure that we respond to all their product-related queries within a day. We also have live chat and video calling facility which helps them make a decision.

Lastly what are the trends you predict for 2021 and 2022?

We see an upward trend this season and in the coming few months. We see an increase in demand in diamond jewellery purchase and with the help of 0 per cent interest EMI we can see more and more customers buying larger pieces of diamond jewellery.