Besides, this year, there are not many mahurats for marriage during and post May, therefore bridal purchases have already been completed in April.
In terms of metals, gold was the obvious choice of the buyers – either jewellery or coins. However, many jewellers in Mumbai said that though they had good footfall, there were not many big purchases made on the day. Mostly, small trinkets and lightweight jewellery was sold.
Jewellers across the country tried their best to lure the customers to showroom with exciting offers like offering free silver coins on every purchase; 10 per cent off on gold price, etc. Jewellers had kept their shops open for an extended time on Monday to accommodate maximum number of buyers.
Kapil Hetamsaria, CEO & Co-Founder, VelvetCase.com said “Specially curated collections, gold jewellery and coins were the highlights of this festival. We offered interesting discounts and deals on our website to attract women customers. In terms of price bracket, jewellery in the range of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 sold well while in terms of metal we had good response for gold jewellery as well as coins.” While Praveen Goel, CMD, Sunar Jewels said “This year, we came up with offers like 10 per cent extra off on current gold prices or Buy 1 Carat Diamond Jewellery and get same value of 1 carat Diamond free.” Voylla gave silver coins free on every purchase above Rs. 1000 which acted as an icing on the cake for our customers, said Jagrati Shringi, Co-founder of fashion jewelry brand, Voylla Fashions Pvt Ltd.
Vijay Jain, CEO and Director, ORRA was happy with the outcome. He said “This Akshay Tritiya, with an increase in gold prices, we did gold sales lagging as compared to the previous years. On the bright side however, we did see a growth in diamond jewellery sales. This is definitely a positive sign with ORRA’s diamond centric positioning. We are finally seeing some greenshoots on consumer spends. PNG Jewellers too had good response this year. Saurabh Gadgil – CMD PNG Jewellers, Vice President IBJA said “We had great footfalls across all our stores on Akshay Tritiya, there were demand for light weight jewellery & gold bullion. Increased Gold price were well received by our consumers.” Pritesh Goyal, Jewellery Designer and Director, SLG Jewellers Pvt. Ltd said “Last year during Akshay Tritiya, there was increase of sales especially in Gold by 20 per cent however we have witnessed not much craze among buyers this year. The reason could be increase of excise duty and fluctuating gold rates.”
Tanya Rastogi, Director, Lala Jugal Kishore Jewellers said “The increased rate of gold has worked in favour of the metal and the industries, as the consumer is reminded that gold is still an investor friendly metal.” Aditya Pethe, Director, WHP Jewellers said “We are anticipating a good demand this Akshay Tritya with an expected increase of 30-35 per cent in sales this year. As the gold prices have increased in the last week, we feel it will reinstate the consumer’s faith into the category. Gold Earrings, Necklaces and Bangles in light weight contemporary settings will continue to be the bestsellers.”
Samir Sagar, Director, Manubhai Jewellers said “We are hoping for a good gold run this year on Akshaya Tritiya. Since it follows a weekend we are expecting the festive spirit to continue right upto Monday and are hoping for a 10 -15 per cent rise in footfalls.” Ishu Datwani, Founder, Anmol Jewellers said “Even before the Akshay Tritiya sale ends, we are looking at least 30 per cent plus growth in sales. One peculiarity we noticed in the consumer buying pattern this year is that nobody was really asking for coins. Coins and bullions contributed to only 5 per cent of the sales and 95 per cent of the total sales was from jewellery. Two main factors which helped this year were – the long week-end prelude to Akshay Tritiya and our strong and aggressive marketing strategy & promotional offers for Akshay Tritiya.”
Ms. Kajal Jain (Founder – Ahilya) said, “This was AhilyaJewels.com’s first Akshay Tritiya and we did phenomenally well! As we specialize in sterling silver jewellery, with gold prices on the rise, we saw the consumer sentiment shift towards silver.” Gautam Ghanasingh, CEO and Creative Director at Ghanasingh Be True said, “We saw a great movement in gold jewellery and gold coins varying from 5 – 50gms on the auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya. Keeping away from traditional designs, most of our sales included jewellery pieces that are more wearable and practical such as stack-able bangles in three shades of gold, filigree earrings and delicate pendant sets in gold. We witnessed sales between an approximate price bracket of Rs. 10,000 – Rs. 1 lakh.”