THE CONSUMER SURVEY(2007-08)

Presenting insights into the jewellery buying habits of Indian women

The Indian Jewellery market is large. It’s worth over $16 billion a year. But it's largely fragmented and unbranded. Large brands or organized retail account for 4 per cent of the overall market. The rest of the market is in the hands of about 3,00,000 unorganized jewellers. But according to a study by international consultancy firm McKinsey, the India branded jewellery market alone would touch the $2.5 billion mark by 2010.

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The traditional segmentation of the Indian jewellery market would be Gold, diamond and Platinum- i.e. segmentation by material. Another typical segmentation could be wedding, fashion and trinket jewellery.

But if you look at the jewellery market from the perspective of consumer buying habits, the classification would fall into three clear segments: Everyday wear, Special occasion wear, Wedding jewellery. Everyday wear could be jewellery worn for work or at home. Special occasion wear could either be jewellery either be the trousseau, which is worn to the mantap or wedding hall or it could be fashion jewellery.

Now this leads us to a few question: What are the primary characteristics of women consumers- both the traditional women and the modern women- in terms of their jewellery buying behaviour? Why do they buy jewellery- for adornment, for investment or both? Do they mostly buy jewellers for themselves orfor others? Do they mostly buy from the traditional

family jewellers or from branded stores? Are their jewellery purchases planned or mostly impulsive? What are their jewellery consumption habits from the perspectives of product, price, quality, place and design.The Art of Jewellery commissioned the Pune based market research firm Market Source Consultancy Services (MSCS) to find answers to these- and related- questions. The quantitative survey was conducted in June and covered a sample of 500 plus women of various age groups and income levels across 4 metros and 6 smaller cities: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Coimbatore, Jaipur and Pune. The respondents had all bought jewellery over the preceding year.

The finding are of significance both to existing jewellery retailers as well as to those who intend to enter the market in the near future. In addition, the survey presents information and insights that can assist members of the jewellery industry both in their day to day business and for planning for the future.

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The survey involved the following:

Desk Research: Desk research data was collected with the help of published materials , magazines ,Internet and from relevant printed material on the subject.

Field Research: A suitable questionnaire was designed and the questionnaire method was adopted for field research. All the respondents were met personally and on the basis of face to face interviews and interactions, the field data was collected.

Data Analysis & Report Writing: Data analysis was carried out using statistical tools. Standard software’s such as SPSS and MS- EXCEL were used for analysis. Based on the analyses data , the survey report was drafted.

Sample size: The total sample size of the survey was 550 respondents, drawn from 10 Indian cities comprising the 4 metros of Delhi, Kolkatta, Mumbai, and Chennai plus 6 major cities of Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Coimbatore,Jaipur and Pune.

In each city. There were 55 contact with the break-up as follows: 50 contacts comprising a mix of “Traditional” and “Modern” women jewellery shoppers and the remaining 5 contacts were of jewellery store owners. For data collection, the field team identified and spoke with women jewellery shoppers at home as well as with women shoppers picked at random at jewellery shops(that is, random walk-ins).

For the purpose of the study, women jewellery shoppers were segmented into 2 categories: Traditional and Modern. Traditional women jewellery shoppers were defined as housewives, educated up to graduation level, failing in the age group of 30 years and above. With varied monthly family incomes and who are not decision makers in their own right so far as jewellery purchase is concerned. Modern women were defined as working women, decision makers in their own right with respect to jewellery purchased, with respect to jewellery purchase, with educational levels up to graduation/post graduation and above and falling in the age group of 25-35 years, including those who were newly married.

Methodology How the Survey was Done

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Key Findings• With reference to overall women Jewellery shoppers, traditional women shoppers had a major share as compared to

Modern women shoppers.• In category-wise Jewellery, plain Gold Jewellery was the most in demand.• In terms of products, Bangles were the most popular among women shoppers followed by rings and Bracelets.• Among significant occasions for Jewellery purchase, Diwali and Dassera together topped the list, followed by Akshaya Tritiya

and (receipt of) bonus/extra money.• In terms of place, Traditional Jewellery shops were the most preferred place for shopping.• There was lot of awareness regarding Hallmarked Jewellery.• KDM Jewellery awareness was the most among the high age group women shoppers.• In case of media influence. It was observed that television was the most sought medium for consumers to get attracted

towards different Jewellery brands.• From the finding it was clear that the overall average of planned purchases was more as compared to impulsive purchase.• The women shoppers considered,' Design on offer’ having more influence on their Jewellery purchase, followed by ‘ Trust

and familiarity’ and then ‘Price’.• Even today. Most of the women Jewellery shoppers consider Jewellery as an investment option than a mere adornment.• Interestingly family had the most influence on the Jewellery purchase of women shoppers and, within the family; the

influence of husbands was comparatively more then that of mothers.• It was observed that if women shoppers are provided with better designs and quality, they are willing to pay more.• Most of the women Jewellery shoppers were not willing to sell their old Jewellery but wished to retain it and opt for new

purchases.• Among the branded players, Tanishq, was found to be the most trusted brand followed by Nakshatra.

Readymade Jewellery preferred over Customized JewelleryCo

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Readymade Jewellery

Jewellery mostly bought for family members

Purchase Modern Traditional Grand Total

Mostly for use as gifts 12% 9% 10%

Only for yourself 28% 16% 20%

Mostly for yourself & family members 60% 75% 70%

Grand Total 100% 100% 100%

When it comes to purchase of jewellery,70% jewellery is purchased for family members . since buying gold or gold

jewellery in india is a family affair, many a time the lady of the house along with kids, grandparents and siblings go to the store as

a group to buy jewellery.10% jewellery is bought for use as gifts and 20% for ownself . If we see the cross reference with Modern and Traditional women shoppers,60% Modern women shoppers

and 75% Traditional women shoppers buy jewellery for themselves and family members.

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Modern women shoppers happen to be young

Age Modern Traditional

1-Less than 25 years 16% 0%

25 to 30 years 62% 4%

30 to 40 years 22% 93%

40 to 50 years 0% 3%

Grand Total 100% 100%

It was observed that among the overall women jewellery shoppers interviewed,16% Modern

jewellery shoppers fall in the age group of less than 25 years and 62% fall in the age group 25 to 30 years and in the case of Traditional jewellery

shoppers,93% fall in the age group 30 to 40 years.

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Occupational break-up women jewellery shoppersCo

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Ornaments- Most likely to buyCo

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Monthly income level of women jewellery shoppers

Monthly income Bangalore Chennai Cochin Coimbatore Delhi Hyderabad Jaipur Kolkatta Mumbai Pune

Rs.5000 -10000 31% 20% 62% 49% 0% 24% 0% 44% 4% 27%

Rs.10000-20000 33% 54% 22% 35% 4% 60% 18% 38% 22% 43%

Rs.20000-50000 30% 22% 13% 15% 93% 16% 47% 4% 60% 17%

Above Rs.50000 6% 4% 3% 1% 3% 0% 355 14% 14% 13%

Grand Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Monthly income Modern Traditional

Rs.5000-10000 34% 22%

Rs.10000-20000 38% 33%

Rs.20000-50000 25% 37%

Above Rs. 50000 3% 8%

Grand Total 100% 100%

From the overall Modern women jewellery shoppers, 34% shoppers had monthly income between Rs.5000-10000, 38% shoppers had monthly income between Rs.10000-20000 and 25% shoppers had monthly income between Rs.20000-50000, on the other hand, jewellery shopping is on the rise in the case of Traditional women having monthly income Rs.20000-50000- their share was 37%- followed by women with monthly income of Rs. 10000-20000(33%) and those with monthly income of Rs.5000-10000(22%).From the city-wise table below, it can be seen that consumer habits of women jewellery shoppers of different income levels vary from city to city. As seen, Delhi has 93% shoppers with monthly income between Rs20000 and Rs.50000. similarly, 62% shoppers from Cochin have monthly income between Rs.5000 and 10000

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Jewellery Category

Plain Gold Jewellery

Gold Jewellery studded with diamonds

Gold Jewellery studded with colour gemstones

Platinum Jewellery studded with Diamond

Platinum Jewellery

Fashion Jewellery

Pearl Jewellery

Silver Jewellery

Synthetic Diamond jewellery

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Jewellery category-wise purchase

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City-wise Jewellery Trends

Product Bangalore Chennai Cochin Coimbator Delhi Hyderabad Jaipur Kolkatta Mumbai Pune Grand Total

Fashion Jewellery 0% 0% 4% 4% 0% 0% 2% 0% 0% 4% 1%

Gold Jewellery studded with colour gemstones

13% 0% 7% 5% 7% 0% 15% 2% 38% 2% 9%

Gold Jewellery studded with diamonds

45% 2% 5% 7% 4% 0% 65% 9% 22% 15% 13%

Plain Gold jewellery 71% 95% 56% 55% 87% 98% 11% 89% 36% 71% 67%

Pearl Jewellery 0% 0% 4% 0% 0% 2% 2% 0% 0% 2% 1%

Platinum Jewellery 5% 3% 9% 9% 2% 0% 5% 0% 2% 2% 4%

Platinum Jewellery studded with diamonds

5% 0% 15% 16% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2% 2% 4%

Silver Jewellery 2% 0% 0% 2% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2% 1%

Synthetic Diamond Jewellery

0% 0% 0% 2% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Grand Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

While Plain Gold jewellery is a popular category among all cities, other types of jewellery show a different trend. Gold jewellery studded with gemstones is preferred by 13% in Bangalore, 15% in Jaipur and 38% in Mumbai, gold jewellery studded with diamonds is preferred by 65% in Jaipur , 22% Mumbai and 15% in Pune

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Media Habits

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Significant Occasions

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Place of purchase

Place of purchase Bangalore Chennai Cochin Coimbatore Delhi Hyderabad Jaipur Kolkatta Mumbai Pune

Branded jewellery outlets

18% 13% 29% 36% 0% 13% 25% 5% 5% 25%

Diamond merchants 2% 0% 5% 9% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Individual goldsmiths 0% 0% 4% 2% 0% 0% 7% 0% 0% 4%

Real jewellery exhibitions

0% 0% 7% 13% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2%

Shopping malls 2% 0% 4% 7% 0% 0% 0% 0% 7% 4%

Traditinal jewellery outlets

78% 87% 51% 33% 100% 87% 68% 95% 88% 65%

Grand Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

In terms of place, consumers have the habit of visiting traditional jewellery Shops, frequently on festive and weekly holidays. The graph clearly shows that almost 76%Jewellery shoppers visit traditional jewellery outlets whereas17% visit branded jewellery outlets.

On Interacting with jewellery shoppers, we got to understand that there are usually large sales promotions around these holiday seasons. Consumer are interested In buying jewellery products in traditional shops due to wider range in terms variety , choice of designs, reasonable price, assured trusted and familiarity and guaranteed quality.

From the overall place of purchase, traditional jewellery shops and branded jewellery shops are the most likely preference for purchase of jewellery. From the table below, it can be seen that branded jewellery shops are popular in Bangalore, Pune, Cochin, Coimbatore and Jaipur.

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Hallmarked jewellery awareness

Preference to Buy

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Purchase frequency

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KDM jewellery awareness

67%

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% Jewellery Purchase- Impulsive or planned

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Influences on choice of jewellery store

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Perception of jewellery- As investment, as adornment or both

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Family influence on purchase

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Willing to pay more for better design and quality

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Sale or Exchange of Old jewellery with New jewellery

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High gold price influence on purchase decision

High gold price certainly affects jewellery purchase decisions as 52% respondents agreed that it did.

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Highly Gold prices influence on postponing purchase decision

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Does high Gold prices in future influence purchase decision?

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Trusted Brands

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* TBZ : TribhuanDas Bhimji Zaveri

Awareness about Diamond Grades

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Conclusions

The findings of the survey should be of great value to jewellery retailers. Some of the findings should surely come as a sort of revelation. As for instance the clear preference for plain gold jewellery across all women categories, that the most preferred product is Bangles, that a majority of jewellery purchase are planned well in advance, the strong level of awareness about hallmarked jewellery, the influence of thee family- especially husbands in the case of married women- in jewellery purchase decisions, the strong influence of television in creating awareness about jewellery brands, the willingness of consumers to pay more if the designs on offer were right and the jeweller(or retail store) had their trust, the pronounced preference of readymade jewellery over customized jewellery, and most importantly, the continued popularity of traditional, standalone jewellery stores.

The insights provided by the survey, we believe, would help jewellery marketers and retailers in their endeavours to maximize their opportunities in the Indian jewellery market today.

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Thank you………………

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Ved Prakash SharmaCentre Head

ATR Institute of Jewellery DesignRaipur-492001(C.G)

Vedic_atrijd@rediffmail.com, veda.p.sharma@gmail.com+91-9559913754+91-8808071891