Titan's jewellery division says people are getting more comfortable with shopping online
In an exclusive interaction with Business Today, Ajoy Chawla, CEO of Titan’s jewellery division, speaks about the impact of the pandemic on the jewellery market, the rise of online retail, and expansion plans for its brand, Zoya.
- Oct 26, 2021,
- Updated Oct 26, 2021 9:43 PM IST
Titan's jewellery arm comprises of four brands – Zoya, Tanishq, CaratLane, and Mia. While Tanishq is their most known brand, with over 350 stores in 200 cities, Zoya is their luxury brand and sits on top of the product pyramid, with the finest craftsmanship, inspired design and the premium natural stones. CaratLane is an omni-channel brand and is currently the largest online jeweller, and Mia offers contemporary, workwear jewellery. Titan's jewellery division witnessed strong recovery in demand after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic across its brands and posted a 78 per cent growth year-on-year in Q2 of FY22. We spoke to Ajoy Chawla, CEO of Titan’s jewellery division on brand Zoya, impact of the pandemic, online jewellery retail, and expansion plans for Zoya. Excerpts.
How did the pandemic impact you?
The pandemic, of course, impacted everyone. Zoya only had three boutiques and the fourth one was added last year. We had two stores in Mumbai, one in Delhi and we added one in Bengaluru. The Mumbai and Delhi stores were badly affected. Our store in the Palladium Mall in Mumbai was shut for a very long time. Since Mumbai and Delhi form the bulk of our customer base, certainly the impact was severe during the lockdown. We opened the Bengaluru boutique just after the first lockdown. Amongst all this, it was extremely challenging for Zoya which is dependent on these selected cities. Having said that, I am also very delighted to share that brand Zoya bounced back very strongly on the back of multiple initiatives and ended last fiscal on a nearly 15 per cent retail growth over the previous year. The boutique in Bengaluru took off. We also added six Zoya galleries in appropriate Tanishq stores in Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Kolkata. We also took a host of digital initiatives and remote shopping initiatives, including try at home. So, the recovery was quick. Even in the current year the first half has gone off really well and we have continued to show growth. In fact, we have a 64 per cent retail growth over the pre-pandemic year FY 2019-20. So, the impact was high, but the resilience and the recovery was also quick.
Are people now more comfortable buying jewellery online?
Yes, people are comfortable buying jewellery online. But not all of the purchase is online. A large part of the journey is online – discovery, initial engagement, may be even a video call is all online. So the shortlisting happens online and then the final part of it takes place offline. The offline could be at the person’s home or at the store.
But the comfort factor of shopping online has gone up. In the case of Tanishq, if earlier the pure online transaction was worth Rs 14,000-15,000, that has jumped to 30,000-35,000. So, it indicated that more customers were willing to buy a slightly higher ticket price purely online without any offline element.
And if we were to combine online and offline, or what we like to call phygital, then the ticket sizes are comparable to what we get purely offline.
Coming to Zoya specifically, our HNI [high net-worth] customer base in Mumbai and Delhi was pretty scared of the pandemic and did not want to venture to the stores. So, all engagement had to move online or through personal interactions over a video call. Try-at-home emerged as a big feature. Also, we curate interesting experiences for our customers at home. For instance, we will serve them a Starbucks coffee or if they are buying jewellery for an occasion such as an anniversary or a birthday, we will get a special meal delivered from a Taj hotel.
The online interactions are also with a jewellery expert and not a bot. And we pride ourselves in a very warm response as opposed to a cold technology-based response.
A lot of work has gone into our backend. And because of all this we have also seen a lot of interest coming in from towns that are beyond our footprint, such as Bilaspur and Guntur. We have started using the Tanishq network in that town -- we will complete the shortlisting online and then bring the final products to the Tanishq showroom in that town for the purchase. We are also doing trunk shows in smaller towns and that has also helped with sales.
How has jewellery as an industry been impacted in the last couple of years?
There has been a benefit for the jewellery category in terms of share of wallet. Travel is restricted, important celebrations are few and far between, and the customer has not spent money on so many other things. So, all that saved money has to be spent somewhere and jewellery has seen an increase in share of wallet since it is considered of value that appreciates.
What are your expansion plans for Zoya?
We currently have 4 boutiques and 6 galleries across seven towns. By the end of the year we should have three more boutiques in South Mumbai, Gurugram, and Hyderabad. In future, we will look at boutiques in towns like Kolkata, Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad, based on the responses we see from our galleries. We expect to add 2-3 more boutiques in the next financial year. So, we should have around 8-10 boutiques and around 15-20 galleries in the next 18-24 months.
Who is the ideal Zoya clientele?
We are a luxury brand but we are not aloof and cold, the way international luxury brands have defined luxury. We are a luxury brand with an Indian soul. Since we belong to the house of Tatas we are a very warm brand. We do not appeal to the traditional rich, but to the new rich, who are not only looking at jewellery as a big-ticket item but also as a means of self-expression. It’s more self-expression than status driven. She is typically 40 plus, is living life on her own terms and knows what she wants. Also, the brand is above Tanishq. So, the average ticket price is Rs 5 lakh as compared to Rs 1.2 lakh for Tanishq.
What are your plans for this festive season?
Like every year we have launched a new collection this year. It is called Libera and was launched by Sushmita Sen. There are 35 pieces in this collection.
Titan's jewellery arm comprises of four brands – Zoya, Tanishq, CaratLane, and Mia. While Tanishq is their most known brand, with over 350 stores in 200 cities, Zoya is their luxury brand and sits on top of the product pyramid, with the finest craftsmanship, inspired design and the premium natural stones. CaratLane is an omni-channel brand and is currently the largest online jeweller, and Mia offers contemporary, workwear jewellery. Titan's jewellery division witnessed strong recovery in demand after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic across its brands and posted a 78 per cent growth year-on-year in Q2 of FY22. We spoke to Ajoy Chawla, CEO of Titan’s jewellery division on brand Zoya, impact of the pandemic, online jewellery retail, and expansion plans for Zoya. Excerpts.
How did the pandemic impact you?
The pandemic, of course, impacted everyone. Zoya only had three boutiques and the fourth one was added last year. We had two stores in Mumbai, one in Delhi and we added one in Bengaluru. The Mumbai and Delhi stores were badly affected. Our store in the Palladium Mall in Mumbai was shut for a very long time. Since Mumbai and Delhi form the bulk of our customer base, certainly the impact was severe during the lockdown. We opened the Bengaluru boutique just after the first lockdown. Amongst all this, it was extremely challenging for Zoya which is dependent on these selected cities. Having said that, I am also very delighted to share that brand Zoya bounced back very strongly on the back of multiple initiatives and ended last fiscal on a nearly 15 per cent retail growth over the previous year. The boutique in Bengaluru took off. We also added six Zoya galleries in appropriate Tanishq stores in Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Kolkata. We also took a host of digital initiatives and remote shopping initiatives, including try at home. So, the recovery was quick. Even in the current year the first half has gone off really well and we have continued to show growth. In fact, we have a 64 per cent retail growth over the pre-pandemic year FY 2019-20. So, the impact was high, but the resilience and the recovery was also quick.
Are people now more comfortable buying jewellery online?
Yes, people are comfortable buying jewellery online. But not all of the purchase is online. A large part of the journey is online – discovery, initial engagement, may be even a video call is all online. So the shortlisting happens online and then the final part of it takes place offline. The offline could be at the person’s home or at the store.
But the comfort factor of shopping online has gone up. In the case of Tanishq, if earlier the pure online transaction was worth Rs 14,000-15,000, that has jumped to 30,000-35,000. So, it indicated that more customers were willing to buy a slightly higher ticket price purely online without any offline element.
And if we were to combine online and offline, or what we like to call phygital, then the ticket sizes are comparable to what we get purely offline.
Coming to Zoya specifically, our HNI [high net-worth] customer base in Mumbai and Delhi was pretty scared of the pandemic and did not want to venture to the stores. So, all engagement had to move online or through personal interactions over a video call. Try-at-home emerged as a big feature. Also, we curate interesting experiences for our customers at home. For instance, we will serve them a Starbucks coffee or if they are buying jewellery for an occasion such as an anniversary or a birthday, we will get a special meal delivered from a Taj hotel.
The online interactions are also with a jewellery expert and not a bot. And we pride ourselves in a very warm response as opposed to a cold technology-based response.
A lot of work has gone into our backend. And because of all this we have also seen a lot of interest coming in from towns that are beyond our footprint, such as Bilaspur and Guntur. We have started using the Tanishq network in that town -- we will complete the shortlisting online and then bring the final products to the Tanishq showroom in that town for the purchase. We are also doing trunk shows in smaller towns and that has also helped with sales.
How has jewellery as an industry been impacted in the last couple of years?
There has been a benefit for the jewellery category in terms of share of wallet. Travel is restricted, important celebrations are few and far between, and the customer has not spent money on so many other things. So, all that saved money has to be spent somewhere and jewellery has seen an increase in share of wallet since it is considered of value that appreciates.
What are your expansion plans for Zoya?
We currently have 4 boutiques and 6 galleries across seven towns. By the end of the year we should have three more boutiques in South Mumbai, Gurugram, and Hyderabad. In future, we will look at boutiques in towns like Kolkata, Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad, based on the responses we see from our galleries. We expect to add 2-3 more boutiques in the next financial year. So, we should have around 8-10 boutiques and around 15-20 galleries in the next 18-24 months.
Who is the ideal Zoya clientele?
We are a luxury brand but we are not aloof and cold, the way international luxury brands have defined luxury. We are a luxury brand with an Indian soul. Since we belong to the house of Tatas we are a very warm brand. We do not appeal to the traditional rich, but to the new rich, who are not only looking at jewellery as a big-ticket item but also as a means of self-expression. It’s more self-expression than status driven. She is typically 40 plus, is living life on her own terms and knows what she wants. Also, the brand is above Tanishq. So, the average ticket price is Rs 5 lakh as compared to Rs 1.2 lakh for Tanishq.
What are your plans for this festive season?
Like every year we have launched a new collection this year. It is called Libera and was launched by Sushmita Sen. There are 35 pieces in this collection.