"Our conversion rate for 'Try Jewellery at Home' is as high as 80 per cent"

Retailer media interviewed Calvin John, VP and spokesperson for the brick-and-mortar spaces of Carat Lane, a brand known to redefine jewellery retail traditions.         

After making a mark in the online space, many jewellery brands are now opening their physical stores to give people a sense of touch and feel that is so intrinsic to the jewellery and solitaire business.

Tell us something about Carat Lane’s journey.

It’s been six years now. Carat Lane started in 2008. We started off being an online portal, where we were selling solitaires and jewellery. We consider them as two different categories since the models are very different. Eventually, we saw good success online. Obviously, you know, after a while of doing good work, people start accepting you and your work.

After some time, we thought it was hitting the ceiling and it is important for a category like ours to provide touch and feel (and trust), which plays an important role in the jewellery category. That’s when we ventured into the physical, offline space. Again, we were very clear that the stores would not be like typical retail stores. They’re not 20,000 sq ft, sitting on huge loads of inventories, because that is what blocks one’s major working capital.

Are your stores trying to defy the traditional model of huge-square-feet area, sitting on hundreds and crores of inventories?

So, we kept it small, we kept it crisp as a format. The idea of the stores was more of handholding. It was more of preconditioning, and to make people a little more comfortable with the products we have; their finishing, the offerings, the integration of technology, etc. That is the precise idea. There was a lot of education that was provided on diamonds and how to buy these, etc. Initially, our focus was on that. Eventually, we started making tweaks and started keeping things the customers could buy off the shelf. Because after seeing a product online, they would come to our store to buy that same product.

But our model still is to have low (or virtual) inventory. Even in our existing stores, in all formats, at least 70 per cent of our inventory is basically mocks (a product made out of silver and not necessarily gold). The idea to keep them in the store is that people will come, try these on, how it looks on people and getting their point of view. And not keeping real inventory also makes us not follow other’s footsteps and becoming like any other retailer.

How do you stop people from trying at other places? What percentage of the stock are real products?

A total of 30 per cent of the stock is real products. We keep stock of what sells best in the market ready. Also, people are generally comfortable waiting for an order. For example: if you had to go to other jewellery retailer as well, if you didn’t have your size, you would have anyway waited for it, specifically on size-dependent categories like rings and bangles.

You are expanding quickly. Which part of Delhi are you making your presence felt next?

The store at Pacific Mall, Subhash Nagar is our fifth store. We have got stores in GK, Delhi, Jubilee Hills and Forum Sujna Mall in Hyderabad, Phoenix Market City, Mangalore. Another couple of weeks we are going to have another store in Delhi’s Ambience Mall.

How are the stores performing?

All the stores are performing really well. Not only are they performing on an individual level, but are facilitating sales for our online stores as well. A lot of cross-pollination is happening. So now we have three channels: online, offline and try at home. In the last option, you can ask for delivery of up to five pieces and choose from them. Jewellery is a group buying process. You would ask somebody how it looks, or maybe try it on with clothes, etc, so trying at home is an important channel too. Our conversion rates on that are as high as 80 per cent.

Are you also thinking of introducing technology to integrate your brand’s multichannel presence?  

We started as an online channel, but now we see ourselves more as a brand. You know, in our business, one has to give access to the consumers as and when they require. In a short span of time, we will also be launching a dedicated mobile app. We do have a mobile-friendly site right now, but we will engage our customers through the mobile app of the brand. We are working with our partners in the US, who are helping us develop that. We will make sure that the app stands out, and is not the standard stuff everybody is serving.

So, do you use the online to create buzz for your physical stores?

Recently, before this particular store opened, we asked Delhiites how badly they want us. We created an initiative online. This was geo-targeted and shown to visitors from Delhi. It was done digitally on the website and on the social media primarily. There were two questions: whether or not they want us, and how much they intend to spend (they could select a figure anywhere between 10,000 to 10 lakhs of rupees). We also gave an additional 3 per cent offer to the consumers (over the 30 per cent that is on offer) who said yes to Carat Lane and how much they intended to spend.

 The response was phenomenal. Close to 2,400 people said Yes to Carat Lane and voted for us, and the intended value of shopping at this store is close to 4.5-5 crores. That’s very heartening for a brand like ours. These kinds of initiatives also help you streamline your location choice and see if people want to come here and shop. It’s amazing to know that one channel can generate excitement for another channel. The online space definitely created a buzz for our physical store. It’s working well for both the channels. Next financial year we want to be around 30-35 stores

What do consumers like about your brand the most and why is Carat Lane’s designs talk of the town today?

One thing that all the consumers are appreciating about us is that our designs are unique and they tend to stand out from the rest. And for that, I’d like to mention about the in-house design team. At Carat Lane, we have tried to control the entire channel at our end. We have five in-house designers. Right from research to ideating to designing to manufacturing to after-sales, returns and refunds, the entire chain is handled by us in house. We believe that it is an important part of our business model.

For jewellery, we have our own certification, and it also goes to third party certification lab called the SGL. The consumer can go through the certification details online, too. For Solitaires, we only operate on the internationally certified diamonds we are only dealing with the best, so if a person wants a GIA, HRD, IGI, we provide them with that.

Talk to us about the price-points.

As far as jewellery is concerned, we operate anywhere between Rs 3,000 to two lakhs. We are trying to push the envelope on the higher value, but predominantly the merchandise would be around 50K and below. That I guess is the sweet spot for online jewellery. In physical retail, there is no end to it.

Is price also the USP of your brand?

With respect to regular retailers and jewelers, the focus when you visit them would be bridal and high-value products. You will see that reflected in people from the sales staff as well. The moment you say your budget is 25K, they’d be disinterested in you. For us, this ‘everyday jewellery’ space, which is growing in terms of size of pie, is engaging. More and more women today feel that they are not able to enjoy the high-end stuff that they get for their weddings, and it is just locked away in their bank lockers. Women want to use precious jewellery at office or business, etc. A lot of retailers are not able to fill this gap of everyday jewellery. We provide huge range of options. For the sake of numbers, we have as many as 2 lakh solitaire options on our site.

Another thing is that when you are buying online there is no pressure on you. And being in that space of being able to provide differentiated designs at affordable price points is what we stand for. It’s the pricing that strikes out for us. People appreciate the designs, too. We use a lot of cut work, a lot of three-dimensional tweaks to make our products look larger and the gold spread out, which is what the people today demand. It’s not about the thickness today. We provide larger looking products in budget. We are almost doing un-jewellery to this category in the sense that we are being very experimental.

So, Carat Lane in that sense is setting new benchmarks in online jewellery and physical market today.

People prefer large stores, we are doing small stores; tradition says lot of inventory, we are low on inventory; they say high-value inventory, we are low-value inventory; people provide very elaborate and leather packaging in jewellery, we provide our products in tins and pouches, which are unheard of material as far as jewels are concerned. There’s nothing called after-sales service in our business, we are into giving surprises on anniversaries, etc aside from acting on their feedback.

We are setting new, defining new benchmarks as far as this category is concerned. The focus would still be metros and tier-I cities. The retailers today are not being delightful, they just push sales and forget the customer soon after the transaction. We are creating a paradigm for new-age customers by going the unconventional way and not trapping them to buy high-end, heavy products.

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