The online jewellery e-commerce players are now experimenting with the offline route - by opening lounges and kiosks to woo both online and offline customers.
CartLane.com, an online jewellery retailer which started its operation in 2008, has set up its ‘Solitaire Experience Lounge’ in Delhi in April this year for customers to experience the service in a personlised manner.
"The lounge is targeted at customers who are increasingly tuned to the idea of making high value purchases online, and at the same time targeted at reaching out to the traditional diamond buyers who requires high personal attention due to the nature of the category," said Mithun Sacheti, CEO, CaratLane.com.
"The online jewellery shopping is seeing an increasing trend in India. However, most of the customers still prefer to have a touch and feel of these products before making a purchase," he added.
Recognising the need, the company has plans to launch six such lounges across the metros in a years' time. It will open a Solitaire Experience Lounge in Hyderabad which will house touch screens and diamond consultants to handhold customers through the entire online buying process by next month.
Another e-commerce portal, Juvalia & You, an online retailer for exquisite fashion jewellery incubated by Springstar GmbH in collaboration with the Smile Group, also follows the same model to attract the customers. It sets up temporary kiosks across the malls in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana to attract customers.
The company follows a dual business model including e-commerce and multilevel marketing, which works through agents like in the likes of a direct selling company. Juvalia & You has 5,000 registered stylists (agents) currently, and seeing a growth in the number.
“Our online business acts like a catalogue for our offline customers and vice-versa. We see a large chuck of our traffic coming from the repeated customers, and the surrounded areas of our kiosk,” says Chaitanya Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer, Juvalia & You.
Currently, the company has presence across Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. "We have plans to roll across 10 states including Maharashtra and Gujarat,” he said.
Another jewellery e-commerce player, Jewelskart.com, has taken up similar trust-building measures like giving a hallmark certificate with every piece of jewellery, 14 days no questions asked return policy and a fully trained customer care team, etc.
In India, most of these online jewellery retailers are offering a wide range of products like chains, pendants, rings, earrings, bracelets, etc. Jewellery is the largest selling product on eBay India. But, the online jewellery retail in India is at a very nascent stage and has a huge market opportunity.
According to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) report, the online retail market in India is expected to reach Rs 70 billion by 2015 from the Rs 20 billion market in 2011.
"CaratLane.com is growing at 250-300% year-on-year and receives around 5,000 orders a month. It has presence across 100 cities and towns, and gets a mix of customers from cities and smaller towns (60:40) as well," Sacheti said.