CaratLane, an omni channel jewellery brand, is aiming to increase the share of retail stores in jewellery sales in the medium term, said a senior official.
“Right now, the sale of jewellery, diamonds and gemstones online and offline is 50:50,” said Atul Sinha, senior vice president, marketing, CaratLane. “In the medium term of two to three years, we expect offline sales to be more.”
In the long term, online sales will replace offline sales, he added.
CaratLane, which started as an online digital platform for selling jewellery items, was acquired by Tata Group company Titan last year.
‘Demand-based’
“After adding the product to the cart, many of the guests failed to complete the transaction, as they wanted to discover more about the product. As we did not have many stores, we started adding retail stores based on the demand. And this gave them the confidence to complete the deal,” he said.
Currently, CaratLane has 23 stores in 10 cities.
It is planning to open another 12 stores in the next six months. This would be in the mix of own stores or on franchisee model.
“This doesn’t mean we have totally changed our strategy from online to offline,” he said.
“Retail and online complement each other and create a powerful retail business.
Guests can browse the jewellery online as it comes with individual specifications and pricing. Given that it is jewellery, the customers may be uncomfortable buying online. This is where the brick and mortar plays a role,” Mr. Sinha said. “We are opening the second store in Chennai,” he said.May be, Chennai can host another two to three stores. Though, we are getting quite number of enquiries from franchisees, we might not open as many stores as jewellery are purchased occasionally. Apart from major cities, there is lot of opportunities in Tier-II cities,” he said.
