Background: What do you think is the issue or the opportunity here? The issue identified by us, through secondary research, is that in spite of burgeoning online retail sales in the present scenario, jewellery sales form a meagre percentage of it. Expensive gold, diamond and platinum jewellery are a high involvement, non-standardised category, and owing to the risk averse nature of consumers, they are reluctant to buy online. . Customer decisions in jewellery buying are also affected by hygiene factors like store display, service, store reputation, store location, etc. which are absent in context of online stores, which creates credibility issues in their mind, in spite of providing quality certifications. Given the spurge of Ecommerce, Bluestone has the opportunity of exploiting this trend by building a relationship of trust with consumers, and changing the face of jewellery buying in India. One of the ways of doing this is by providing consumers with a ‘never seen before’ experience, which will help to build credibility.

Consumer/Customer Insight: What behaviours do consumers demonstrate which might help in explaining the issue/opportunity identified above Through primary research conducted by interviewing a sample of 27 consumers from the TG (young couples) of various cities, we understood that expensive jewellery is a status symbol, financial security as well as a fashion statement. People associate jewellery with various occasions and important events in their lives. Buying jewellery involves a sizeable investment; hence people demand perfection, quality and reliability. This need of assurance, known as the need to “touch & feel”, is satisfied by physically examining the jewellery, checking its weight and description, etc. We concluded the above insights by observing these behaviours of consumers: Jewellery buying is a planned purchase and not an impulse. The consumers still prefer to buy expensive jewellery from their family/home town jeweller, which is also a part of their legacy, and they have a relationship of trust. Even after moving out from their home towns, people either go back to family jewellers for such purchases or consider big brands. They feel inexperienced in such purchases and discuss with elders before buying. They go for appraisal of their online purchases to either family jeweller or any independent jeweller, for verification of quality, resale value, etc.

The Big Idea: How do you plan to approach the problem? In any service encounter- from a simple pizza pickup to a complex, long-term consulting engagement- perception is reality. Our idea of solving the problem is to ensure that we provide the customers with such experiences that they perceive bluestone as one of the most trusted service provider. We aim to create a perception where people associate world class service with the brand Bluestone. According to various behavioural scientists, when people recall an experience, they don’t remember every single moment of it. Instead they recall a few significant moments, which are more in the form of snapshots. Therefore our idea will be to make sure that we provide customers with few ‘aha’ moments, whenever they visit our offline delivery store. Although consumers tend to hate those services and transactions that take a long time, but it has been verified that people who are mentally engaged in a task don’t notice how long it takes. Therefore, we will try to make sure that whatever features we provide, will have the customers totally engaged and try to minimise the lapse time as much as possible. We have conceptualised the setting up of an offline delivery store that is equipped with the most advanced technology. The store will be named as SPARSH (touch) echoing the very objective of why such a store was introduced at the first place. The store will be quite distinct, unlike a standard department store or retail outlet store. Through these stores we aim to provide a unique platform to our consumers, to ‘touch, feel and try’ their online purchases, and indulge in a world class service experience.

How will you land it in market : What are the execution details of your plan SPARSH stores would serve as an alternate delivery point for the jewellery selected by customers online. Once a product is ready, after being ordered online, a code would be provided to the customer, who would be asked to choose a day, when he/she wishes to visit the store. The code will be needed to enter the store for the first time and collect the ordered product, on visiting. A plastic card will be provided to consumers on their first visit, which can be used for entering the store subsequently. The consumers can then ‘try’ the product in a separate seating area, devoid of salespersons, to provide them with personal space and time. Cameras installed in this area will offer the option of taking high quality pictures, while ‘trying’ the product(s). These pictures will be presented to all consumers trying the products, to emphasize their beauty. The consumers can choose to buy or not to buy the order. The store would also feature a “Gemmologist Corner” where a highly skilled technical expert would address problems, (if any), raised by consumers. A large HD LCD TV will screen the manufacturing & designing process, to build higher credibility and provide a sense of satisfaction to customers. Weighing machines and certificates store will help consumers assure themselves and verify product specifications. Self-checkout system will also create a unique Do- It- Yourself experience. In case consumers choose not to buy the product, large touch screens on walls will enable them to browse the website while in the store, and hence, look for other options and order new products then and there.

Any Other Detail Opening up of SPARSH stores can serve a sizeable radius of a city, gradually leading to elimination of the “try at home” services. This will help to cut costs in the long run while building a strong, trusted and customer service oriented brand.

Team Name: - SRK Team Code: - 0512 Institute: - IIM INDORE

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