BlueStone, a fine jewellery e-tailer which has offline stores in Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh opened its first outlet in the city recently. The company which counts Chennai among its top three markets, is on an aggressive expansion spree and is launching stores in Hyderabad and Bengaluru shortly.
Chennai:
India’s jewellery market was worth $50 billion in 2018. And the global jewellery market is expected to touch $272 billion in sales by 2020. And BlueStone is keen on maintaining an omni channel presence, which is why the launch of brick and mortar outlets is a priority for the firm.
Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, Founder & CEO, Bluestone Jewellery and Lifestyle (P) Ltd, tells us, “Consider this scenario, where we have fine jewellery in the price range of Rs 4,000 to Rs 20 lakh.
Customers picking up jewels would prefer a touch and feel experience as far as the higher priced pieces go. Having said that, the strongest growth happens in the Rs 20k to Rs 50k jewellery segment.”
The company netted Rs 300 cr in sales last year, which is about a 50 per cent increase over the sales last year. And the season of Deepavali seems to have also given buoyancy to the business as sales ranged from 40 to 60 per cent higher than the last year.
Kushwaha says, “We are looking forward to opening 100 stores in the next few years. Close to about 80 per cent of these stores will be opened on the franchise model.
As more units in the jewellery industry move towards the organised segment, we will see a lot more standardisation coming in – in terms of practices, remunerations and working hours.”