Pitampura: A jewellery shoppers' Paradise

Check out our Diwali festive offer for 2008 here

I do not represent the Traders' Association of Pitampura or even the jewellery retailers here. Pitampura, in North West Delhi was famous for only and only its T.V. tower. Arguably the tallest structure in Delhi. Life was slow moving as everywhere else. Its only recently(isn't that a pan India phenomenon)that the changes around this area is noticeable and worth mentioning.

Especially, for gold jewellery shoppers, Pitampura has emerged as a complete shopping destination in North-West Delhi. It has clearly emerged as the most sought destination among nearby areas like Rohini, Shalimar Bagh, Ashok Vihar, Paschim Vihar and Punjabi Bagh

You can easily count the who's who of the jewellery world having an outlet here.
Here you will find tons of family jewellers like Goel Jewellers, Goelsons, Rawalpindi, Sona jewellers, Hira jewellers, Vasundhra Jewellers, Hiraq Jewellers, Pytex Jewellers, Baba Jewellers, Champalal Jewellers and Jewellery store chains like Tanishq, Bholasons, Joy Allukkas and P.P. Jewellers.

Infact when Gold Souk ( a mall dedicated to only jewellery stores) opened its first mall in Delhi, It was none other than our neighbourhood.

Some of the other well known jewellery hotspots are Karol Bagh, Chandni Chowk(Kucha Mahajani), Connaught Place and South Extension.

A few updates on this blog

A few announcements on whats new in this blog. Regular visitors must have noticed the right column has a few new things. We did this for a few reasons.

We cannot predict the price of gold but we can make the internet a better place to search for it. An update reflecting gold prices in our store on a daily basis would be available to our blog readers. We will try to update it after 12:30pm on days the market is open. So keep coming often to check the gold prices. We wish we could RSSize it. I will dig more into how can get them in your blogreader.

Google provides some interesting tools to help us share our knowledge of the jewellery world through the Custom Search Engine. We will keeping adding sites to this so that you get highly relevant search results quickly.

Thirdly, we are online a lot of times and would like visitors to take advantage of that fact by throwing question at us. Though right now I cannot commit on the times of the day and days of the week I will be available. So its going to be a little random. You can always send us your questions on info{@}kathana{.}in(Please remove the parenthesis to get our contact info). I check that on a regular basis.

5 ways to save money on new gold/diamond jewellery

I have been wanting to write this post before the recent drop in gold prices but time not permitting, I kept procrastinating till now. With the current gold prices its never too late I guess.

SO here I am aggregating 5 ways to save money if gold purchasing is on the agenda:

1) Stretch the money thin: 1 gm gold ornaments are a hit and available at many stores. Read more on this here and here.

2)14k Gold: Jewellery ornaments made in 14K contain less gold. I mentioned all the virtues of going for low caratage in your jewellery here.

3) Chains minus the weight: You can find a lot of very heavy looking chains which are actually hollow. "A lot of chains are being made hollow and the reduction in weight is compensating for the rise in gold prices," said Roy Lynch, director of Strictly Gold.

4) Join a loyalty program : Retailers(likeTanishq, Kathana) entice consumers with a loyalty program where points accumulates and can be redeemed for various discounts and sometimes with free gold.

5) Exchange Old gold for New: Read my earlier blog post on this here.

Photo Credits: 24thcentury via flickr.com

And gold came tumbling after....

the stock market meltdown. Gold prices are down to Rs. 12,250(24K) from Rs.13,450 just 3 days ago. Earlier the stock market saw valuations eroding due to profit booking and now the gold investors have followed suit.

Gold buyers can heave a sigh of relief now albeit with some caution. Since the turmoil is going to continue it will be some more days before the dust settles on this.

This news comes almost at the end of the wedding season. So a lot of consumers had resorted to either exchanging their old jewellery or keeping jewellery purchases to a minimum. A lot of jewellers (including us) saw sales going down substantially upto even 85%. So with this news, even the jeweller community can now take off their oxygen ventilators.

Deconstructing a Jewellery Advertisement

This is a picture of a typical ad published in print. It came out in the middle week of February and is a perfect example to talk about the current state of affairs in jewellery retailing. I have deliberately blurred the name and contact of the jeweller because this isn't about finger pointing but more about education. To make it simple I have numbered the issues I will bring up in this post.

But first lets consider the advt. Its really straight out of a thriller and can set your pulse racing by the time you finish going through it.

1)Bombay Rate Showroom
Gold is inexpensive by almost Rs.150-200 per 10 grams in Bombay and if you can get the same price in a Delhi showroom then its clearly a Sone Pe Suhaga(if I may borrow the title from our blog).

2)Today's Gold Rate
The gold rate of Rs. 9590 per 10 grams advertised during the second week of February when the gold rate was hovering close to 12,000 is almost a 20% below market rate. You may rightly argue that you are being passed the benefits of "frozen gold prices". Gold purchased by the retailer when the prices weren't blood sucking.

3)Low, So Low Making Charges
Almost as important as the "frozen" price of gold is the oh-so-low-making charges. So low that its hard for even a seasoned bargain hunter to come up with any reason not to give it a second thought.

4)100% Buy Back Guarantee
Usually accompanied with " Hum hain Naa, Behenji". This guarantee will unarm a naive or seasoned customer alike. A 100% buy back guarantee is sure to convince you of the value you are getting.

5)Rs.4000 per Carat Diamonds
Diamonds so affordable. Now who wouldnt give in to that.

Now consider these simple questions YOU as a consumer can ask.

1) Is It HALLMARKED?
Just this question is enough to dilute the positioning, first 3 points in the ad had taken. I have done some back of the envelope calculation to show how this one critical question can make the gold look copper and low making charges look a big sham in disguise. The economics of selling below market price is questionable. I have raised this issue earlier(Check out the related articles).

2) Is Buy Back is equal to Cash Back and not Exchange Back?
It is a guarantee of taking back the jewellery but assuming its going to be a cash back offer can put you in soup. It might well be an exchange only offer. This brings to the next question. If exchanged, Do I lose 10% of the value or 20% 0r even 30%?

3) What color, shade are these diamonds for?
Knowing that you get what you pay for is especially true in case of diamonds. The diamonds at this price are usually brown in shade, which is not clearly evident because they are mounted.

Marketing can be cleverly used to disguise real issues like hallmarking, buy back etc. Hope this makes you a more informed buyer.

Related Articles:

Handling Volatile Gold Prices: A Jeweller's Perspective
Take a hard look at buy back policy
How to avoid the Low Making Charges trap when buying jewellery

Serendipity links for 02/26/08

Serendipity means accidental goodluck and this is how I felt when I stumbled upon these links.

A new feature of this blog I will now start featuring jewellery related links on this blog whenever I find any.Heres my first 2:

Nikhil Muses over a common mallu's penchant for gold in this insightful blogpost. Reminds me of days when I was in Bangalore and all my mallu friends sported a gold chain. Didnt think much then. Gold's Own Country

Neha Bhatt from rediff.com talks about detachable jewellery or rather multi use jewellery as the new trend among younger couples who have begun questioning the age old wisdom of spending tons of money on wedding gold jewellery and then storing them in vaults after that.
Detachable jewellery to suit all times.

We have mentioned a similar trend at this blog some time back in this blogpost titled Sensible Jewellery

Happy Surfing!

Add pearls to your jewellery collection...literally

Pearls ! Almost instantly an image of tens of pearls strung together comes to mind. Pearls among gemstones was synonymous with jewellery of the royalty in earlier times and affluent older women of our times. Undoubtedly they were pricey then. Some of the exotic ones like tahitian are expensive and can really set you back by a few lac rupees but the white ones are as irresistible as ever.

Pearls for ordinary earthlings was synonymous with their teeth. Remember the age old advt. of Dabur Lal Dant manjan which went on to say Raju tumhare daant toh moti jaise chamak rahe hai. They have come a long way from that. If diamonds can be manufactured artificially and become popular as moissanite. So are a lot of pearls artificially cultured in oyster farms. Making them more affordable.

Pearls are back in favor and this time not as estate jewelry but as a must have fashion accessory. Of course they have their place firmly entrenched in the royals heart. But I am talking about the cultured pearls which are finding their place in necklaces and bangles.

So if your jewelry collection was getting monotonous its time you looked at pearls.

Featured above is a pearl bracelet adorned with real diamonds from our store.

New Offering: 14K Diamond Jewellery

There was a time when 10K and 14K jewellery was prevalent in the west but we in India loved our jewellery in pure gold. Shooting gold prices has changed all that. Now, Consumers are demanding stylish design at affordable prices.

Kathana Jewellers has recently started manufacturing 14K diamond jewellery adding to their existing 18K line. This will help our existing/prospective customer base to enjoy the wedding festival and love for gold. In the process they will also end up saving around 22% for an equivalent 18K item.

In 14K the percentage of alloys is higher than 18K and 22K making the ornament stronger and less prone to wear and tear. It will be hallmarked as '585' corresponding to 14K. With all our return policies and buyback guarantees intact.

The times they are a-changin' by Bob Dylan is suddenly ringing in my ears.

Related Posts:
New Offering: Loyalty Cards
New Offering: Custom Made Engagement Rings

Trust Mark: Is it better than Hallmark?

Recently The Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation(GJF) launched the Trust Mark program to help shore up the image of the industry and give consumers confidence.

The govt. proposed Hallmark was limited to purity of precious metals like gold and silver but what GJF proposes with the trust mark is an all encompassing program which goes beyond just hallmarking.

The trade body has proposed a list of criteria like adhering to Hallmarking standards, transparent consumer policies et al.

A few things stand out as one delves into it and compares it vis-a-vis hallmarking:

Confusion in consumers mind:

At the onset it is bound to create confusion in the consumers mind especially when they start thinking of it as equivalent to BIS hallmark ( and/or haven't read this post :) ).

Need for a common playing ground:

GJF has proposed 3 categories to involve the maximum number of jewellers in this program. They are: The top jewellers, the preffered jewellers and the reliable jewellers based on the number of years in the trade, turnover of the jeweller and area of the retail outfit. This choice of criteria is inappropriate.

Since this is a new initiative every jeweller should be given a common playing field. It would be more appropriate that jewellers be chosen based on their customer relevant policies. On the other hand it promotes a certain group of jewellers and has tried to divide the jeweller community based on their number of years in the industry.

We at Kathana pride in the fact that we offer a unique 30-Day 100% Money Back guarantee on all our off-the-shelf jewelry ornaments making us perhaps the only jeweler to do so. Yet with such unique customer centric practises we cannot enter the supposed hallowed circle of 'top jewellers' because we are relatively new to the industry and don't have the requisite floor area.

High fees would be a deterrent:

The fees are for the top jeweller, the preffered jeweller and the reliable jeweller is Rs. 6 lac, Rs. 2.5 lac and Rs. 25,000 respectively.

In fact, its quite ironic that the jeweller community had quite vehemently advocated against such high fees when BIS implemented hallmarking. Sure, the trust mark isnt forced as hallmark was but are these high fees justified.

Lacks teeth:

The GJF's disclaimer:

While stating that a member jeweler has been found to confirm to the strict standards prescribed by GJF under “Trust Mark”, GJF does not assume nor is GJF deemed to assume any responsibility whatsoever with regard to the purity, content or quality of any product sold by such jeweler.

Whereas the BIS clearly states:

Relies on clear rules, delegation of responsibilty, only to those who are certified by BIS and penalties ranging from suspension of license to heavy fines for clear and persistent violation of rules.

Only when the initiating body of such a program take a stringent stand against violating jewellers will this initiative gain public acceptance and hold credibility. Whereas BIS had specified strict guidelines/action against the violating jeweller GJF is relying on self-regulation.

So, to end, trust mark intends to go beyond hallmarking which is good but lacks the teeth in its enforcement . Also It should be a more democratic system keeping the gates equally open for everyone.

Related Article: An Exclusive Club & A Logo To Deliver Consumer Confidence

On a side note: There is a need for a body similar to Better Business Bureau of America so that it addresses all the trade and retailing sectors facing consumers offline or online.

Related Posts:

What is Hallmark Jewellery?
Hallmark Mandatory from Jan 2008...really?

Now, Delhi has its own world class diamond certification lab: IGI

Standardization of any kind is a good idea especially in the jewellery industry. It helps consumers to know what to expect. So be it hallmarking of gold or certification of precious/semi-precious stones, the move is welcome.

Since hallmarking is already gathering momentum across the country, Thursday came with the announcement that International Gemological Institute(IGI) is opening their office in Delhi, 3rd in India. The earlier ones being Bombay(Mumbai) and Calcutta(Kolkata). The office is located in the jewelry hub of Delhi , Karol Bagh and details can be found on their website.

"IGI provides various services like preparing diamond reports on the basis of Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat( 4C's) and now it will provide the 5th C called confidence to the consumers" remarked their CEO Roland Lorie at the launch party. It also provides various other services like laserscribe, table branding etc. You can find at their website.

Talking to Ajay Shukla, the branch manager of IGI office Delhi, I asked what prompted them to open a office in Delhi: Ajay related the story of mobile labs which had to frequently visit Delhi to grade mounted jewellery for the Jewellers and some time back it became so frequent that it made sense for them to open a office in Delhi.

Mobile labs are self contained labs with equipments to help gemologists grade mounted jewellery on Jeweller premises and compact enough to be flown easily to places which dont have a regular setup.

What does all this mean?

That the consumers are increasingly demanding certification and that too not the local Deluxe/Super Deluxe diamonds kind but certifications based on technical merits like the 4Cs. That means the consumer is getting super smart as also noted by the CEO of IGI. The consumer is going to the internet and getting all the information before he even steps in the showroom of the jeweller.

This also means that now you as a consumer can get certified solitaires or even certified mounted jewellery. As mentioned earlier IGI does provide for a way to grade mounted jewellery( jewellery where the diamonds are already set in gold) . There is a detailed report in either case which clearly mentions what IGI thinks of the diamonds in terms of the 4Cs.

Anyways enough talk now time for some pics.


At the launch Party of IGI in Delhi.


At their office in Karol Bagh. Left to Right : IGI's CEO Roland Lorie, Yours Truly, Marketing Manager (IGI India) Nishit Rathee, IGI Delhi's Branch Manager Ajay Shukla.

(This is a guest post by Aditya who was present at the launch of IGI's office in Delhi.)