Jewellery chains take a shine to malls as buyers go for brands
Tue April 16 2024
The glittering storefronts of jewellery shops are fast becoming a prominent feature in shopping malls in India underscoring a shift in consumer preference towards established retailers.
Each mall currently has about 8-10 jewellery stores, up from just one or two in 2021. These stores now occupy nearly 5% of total mall space, up from just 1% two years ago, said five leading mall operators running more than two dozen malls across the country.
With many buyers shifting from smaller jewellers, the organised jewellery retail segment has been outpacing other consumer discretionary segments since April 2023. This is evident in the jewellery segment contributing 15-20% of mall revenues despite occupying only about 5% space.
While brands under the Tata group such as Tanishq are continuing to grow their shopping mall footprint, Reliance Jewels, Kalyan Jewellers, Malabar Gold & Jewels and Joyalukkas are also opening new stores. Aditya Birla Group has also announced a Rs 5,000 crore investment to enter this growing segment.
“In our malls, the share of jewellery stores has gone up to 4-5%. Most of the stores continue to do well and bring decent footfall to the malls,” said Pushpa Bector, senior executive director at DLF Retail, which runs premium malls in the Delhi-National Capital Region.
Some malls are now expecting the share of jewellery stores to reach as much as 8-9% in near future as new brands scout for space.
Suvankar Sen, managing director and CEO of Senco Gold & Diamonds, a listed jewellery firm said, “We have opened stores in malls to increase visibility of our brand and to acquire new young customers."
“Even though gold price is surging ahead, we are optimistic to expand our store footprint to grow our business in the long term,” said Sen.
Senco had negligible mall presence in FY23 but in the year after, the jeweller opened a store each in Elantra Mall (Chandigarh), Mall of Asia (Bengaluru), Phoenix Mall (Indore) and Phoenix Wakad Mall (Pune). These stores range between 2,103 sq ft to 3,090 sq ft.
Candere, the lifestyle brand from the Kalyan Jewellers, has a presence in Infinity Mall in Andheri-Mumbai, and in Lulu Mall, Bengaluru. Overall, Kalyan Jewellers has close to 20,000 sq feet of mall space across India. Candere is looking to focus more on malls and plans to open 50 outlets this financial year.
“Earlier, it used to be one or two stores, but jewellery has emerged as a separate category, and now we have to create a separate zone for them. Last year was tough for apparel stores but jewellery continues to bring footfall and revenue,” said Ravinder Choudhary, Vice President-Vegas & Unity Group, which operates half a dozen malls in Delhi and Punjab.
With real estate accounting for only 1-2% of the cost of opening a new store, jewellers are seizing the opportunity to expand by ramping up advertising and marketing spends.
ICICI Securities has forecast 29% compound annual growth rate in standalone jewellery sales for Kalyan Jewellers and 20% for Titan over FY24–26 with both continuing to report strong demand in the March quarter. Kalyan’s India jewellery revenue grew 38% year-on-year while Titan clocked 19% growth in domestic jewellery revenue growth in the quarter.
“Jewellery segment has undergone significant changes post Covid and for daily wear, shoppers prefer malls. Though high-ticket purchases continue to happen in the high street, the segment is getting organised and mall operators are also ready to give large space to jewellery,” said Muhammad Ali, CEO, retail, Prestige Group.
The flurry of new jewellery store openings is despite a sharp rally in gold prices as buyers rush for safe-haven assets amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
Kalyan Jewellers added 10 new showrooms in India in the March quarter and 57 overall in the just-ended financial year. Titan also reported healthy retail expansion, adding 11 Tanishq and 16 Mia stores in India in the March quarter, surpassing its FY24 guidance of opening 50 stores.
"As the demand for organised jewellery retail surges, we have also witnessed a shift in consumer preferences, especially among new-age and millennial buyers, who are increasingly moving towards renowned brands over smaller jewellers. This shift in preferences is driven by the fact that these brands offer a much wider variety of designs compared to traditional jewellers and cater to buyers across all budgets,” said Jayakumar Gangadharan, regional director, Lulu Mall, Lucknow.
Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/