India 2012: Loose diamonds/jewellery retailing hub

Update 20/3/2010: We have launched India's First hybrid model of diamond retailing by an independent jeweller. Its a momentous occasion as we are living a dream we have talked about in this very post. Find out more here.

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This is the second post in the Blue Ocean Opportunities in Indian gems and Jewellery sector series. My first post is here.

This post has various inspirations. Medical tourism, e-commerce and sramana mitra's posts on India 2020, a query from a finnish visitor to our blog, india's unique position as a diamond processing hub. I know it looks like the opening of a thriller from a future Tom cruise's science fiction movie. So hold on to see the outcome.

For all the naysayers who think Internet is still in its infancy in India, this can be a perfect antidote. An e-commerce initiative not just for Indians but the whole world visiting India.

Imagine a certain Mr. Hakkinen from Finland plans to pop the question with an engagement ring. He logs online and chooses from thousands of diamonds online before settling for a 1.5 carat , asscher cut, fancy yellow , SI2, ideal cut . Not just that , he also orders a setting /style of the engagement ring. He chooses the delivery option of faraway India. No his girlfriend is not Indian, infact, He is visiting delhi for a business trip and plans to mix some personal shopping with it. As he chooses New Delhi airport among various options within the city for the delivery of his ring.

At the New Delhi airport which has been upgraded for the recently concluded Common Wealth games in 2010, he walks into a swanky store to pick up the ring, gift wrap it and also the diamond certificate that comes with it.

Mr. Hakkinen is assured of the best priced diamonds in the world. Thanks to india's dominance in polishing 90% of the world's small diamonds. India enjoys a crucial position in the world diamond supply chain. With 9 0ut of 11 diamonds in the world polished here. These diamonds are then shipped everywhere in the world. Mr. Hakkinen knows this and thats why no other international site (bluenile.com, abazias.com or amazon.com) offers to deliver loose diamonds or their jewellery in India. In fact the diamonds are priced at atleast 20% less than these websites. Enough to pay back for the airlines ticket. And at the heart of this reasoning lies the logic of making that purchase.

This can be a reality for millions of visitors coming into India as tourists, business persons, patients etc. In each of these cases a trip to India can be redeemed for more.

Related Articles:

Blue Ocean opportunites in Indian Jewellery Industry

Shri Krishna pendants in gold and diamond at Kathana

Janmashtami is around the corner, on 24th August. On this day Krishna was born and widely celebrated by devotees across India and world. Special programs are held at ISKCON also.


A pendant featuring Shri Krishna and Radha in gold and diamonds. The crown, clothes and the aura are made of diamonds. The garland is made of ruby stones. Colour to the clothes is provided by meena work.



Wondering why Shri Krishna's skin is blue? Krsna means black, blue or dark blue, More on this at wikipedia. Kathana has more than 2 dozen idol pendants of various Hindu deities in gold and diamond including Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha and symbolic OM.

Meghana of Asklaila.com has captured the celebrations of this day very exhaustively.
Catch the spirit of some worldwide celebrations at this blog.

Update: 3/9/2008
Ganesha in Gold:


This pendant is made of pure 18K gold and diamonds.

In this stylish pendant ganesha is a part of the symbolic OM. Agian in pure 18k gold and diamonds.

Updated : 2/3/2010

Watch it in a video:

Kathana Jewellers turns 4.

Celebrations time at Kathana Jewellers as we turn 4 this day. Who thought 4 years ago that we would be so taken by this thing called blogging that we will share all our thoughts and milestones with everybody like this.

Moreover in the last 4 years the Kathana Family have grown big enough that its tough to even get all of us together. Here are some pictures of most of us. And 4 of us are still missing.


Meenu,Ruchi, Aditya, Anubhav, Ritu and Ritu.

Ruchi ,Ritu, Ranjit, Kapil, Jitender, Meenu, Ashok, Ritu, Ankur, Ramesh.

The trio again

From left to right: Ramesh, Dad, Ranjit, Ashok, Ritu, Ruchi, Ritu, Aditya, Sunil.

Finally the dominos guy are also here.

The entire store was decorated with colorful ballons and a pizza, dahi bhalla party ensured everybody carried that energy through out the day.

Questions around falling gold prices

Gold prices make news when they rise or even when they fall. And last weeks crashing gold prices didnt just sent consumers on a buying spree but also a topic of hot conversations on both sides of the counter.

A few topics of conversations around this phenomenon which I was a part of or over heard my colleagues take it in the store.

Consumer: Is this a good time to buy gold or should I wait a little more?
Aditya: Remember what happened in stocks. People thought sensex will touch 25,000 and refrained from profiting when they could. It tanked and touched 14,000 instead. Similarly when gold was on an upswing there were rumours it would touch 15,000 per 10 gms. It tanked to 11,000 and now people think it will touch 8,500. I would beg to differ. Any kind of investments should be done in phases and thus making a median gain than trying to hit the bottom.
Consumer: Kyun Bhaisahab! Fall in gold prices must be hurting jewellers?
Aditya: No. Not Really, In fact quite the opposite.
Consumer: With eyeballs popping out. hows that?
Aditya: When the gold prices were sizzling hot at Rs. 13, 600 or so, the flow of customers had slowed to a trickle. People weren't sure if this is the benchmark price they should get used to. For a lot of people it made their budget go haywire. Now when the prices have fallen people are queuing back to jewellery stores.
Consumer: What about the jewellery/gold bought at higher prices. Aren't they of lower value?
Aditya: Sure it is, but every time a piece of jewellery is sold, the equivalent of gold is brought the same day at the same prices. I have a post on this. So a jeweller's margin(that of making charges) is intact.
Consumer: But why this sudden fall in gold prices?
Aditya: One aspect is sure that US dollar has become stronger vis-a-vis Indian rupees. And as a thumb rule they move opposite each other. Both gold and US dollar vie for the Big hedge funds, Financial institutions' money. And as dollar shows promising signs of beating the inflation, a lot of money is taken out of gold and put into them. The opposite happened when dollar was tanking. Gold rose. How its related to crude is not clear. Visitors to this blog are welcome to comment.

Attractive time to buy gold

Look at whats happened to gold. Its touched a low of Rs. 11, 860 per 10 gms for 24K on 08/08/08 in Delhi. And no ones complaining: Neither the buyers nor the jewellers.

Our sales personnel haven't heaved a sigh of relief for the last couple of days. When they are not attending customers they are making calls to our existing customers informing them of the current gold prices. I am personally calling up friends, relatives and acquaintances.

This time of the year is usually slow in sales for the jewellery industry. But this fall in gold prices has been a shot in the arm for the sales of both gold jewellery and gold bars/biscuits. So much so that people are planning ahead and buying gold for the marriage season. As gold prices are expected to rise again during that time.

So, Should you buy gold now? There are both sides of the line still. You will find experts advising to buy gold now and not really wait for it to hit bottom. While some are of the belief that gold prices are slated to fall further to Rs. 11, 000.

Whatever your call. You can not blame prices not being within reach for your important gold purchases anymore. Be it investments, marriage or gifts.

Raksha Bandhan Special Offer - Aug. 9 - Aug.14

Raksha Bandhan Special Offer: Kathana Jewellers is celebrating the festival of brother-sister bonding with a special discount for the week long period leading upto the festival. There is a 50% off making charges on store-wide collection of Gold and Diamond Jewellery.

Raksha Bandhan is celebrated on Aug16th. The discount runs from 9th Aug to 14th Aug. This is valid for our entire jewellery collection except gold coins and customized orders. So be it a earring or a gold bangle you want to splurge on we have our entire collection for you to choose. And the icing is, that gold prices are way below Rs.12,000.

So go ahead and shop and just ask your brother to accompany you. I am sure he wouldn't want you to dip in your wallet.

Jewellery shoppers: Beware of these 5 pitfalls on Ebay India

A newspaper story and a couple of blog mentions caught my attention and I thought I will chip in with my thoughts on this.

The newspaper story that ran in ET about ebay selling 1 product a min and the most selling category online is jewellery must have certainly frowned a few brows. Ebay sells a jewellery piece every 7 mins, more than any other category including cellphones, cameras, coins, stamps etc.

That is definitely a shot in the arm for the entire e-commerce industry in India.
But before you jump with both feet in it. Here are a few things you need to look for when shopping online at ebay India.

1) Home grown certificates for diamond authenticity.Most of the sellers on ebay provide their own certificates for the authenticity of diamonds. There isnt any standardized GIA, EGL certificates offered. which means these certificates dont hold water when you go selling them offline.
2) There is no true exchange/refund. Online shopping entails making a purchase decision looking at the pictures provided by the seller, which are often not so good quality. When a user is not satisfied with the actual product the return costs the consumer 10%- 25% or more as 're-stocking fees'. I found a seller which claimed - 100% satisfaction guarantee and yet had a 20% restocking fee if the item was returned.
3) The gold purity is 14K in most cases. Offline stores rarely sell jewellery items in 14K. This translates into good savings.
4) None of the jewellery is hallmarked. There are studies published by BIS on the prevalent purity of most gold items sold offline. Why cant the same happen online?
5) Adjectives like "full cut" and "premium white" describe the quality of diamonds.When internationally its an accepted norm to use the 4Cs namely cut, colour, carat and clarity.

These are early years of ecommerce in India and the biggest draw of online commerce has been the low prices. So the consumers are throwing caution to the wind and not asking as many questions as they would ask the offline stores. Both consumers should start asking for more and sellers should be prepared to offer more as this mode of shopping has to gain mainstream acceptance.