The last time that retailers saw advanced booking of gold for Akshay Tritiya was two years back pre-Covid festive times when people thronged shops for making purchases of gold from early morn to evening. Would this year see a dull phase without many sales, or would the two years of exodus breed sales-on-the-rebound? IJ reports from ground zero. Finally, it was May 3, 2022, the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya that had passed with closed doors, stagnating stocks, no business and disappointment for the entire manufacturing and retail industry across the nation, since the past two years. There was a heat wave that crossed the 40 degree mark across the nation, the Russia – Ukraine war situation too had not signs of improvement, nor was inflation in check… The fate of the day, the mood of the festival and the momentum of the occasion this year had already caught pace. Manufacturers had reported demands from retailers to stock newer offerings, launch fresh collections and offer innovative schemes and discounts. All were prepared, waiting with baited breath, for the third day of the brighter fortnight of the month of Vaishakh.

LONG YEARS…
Sales reports splashed across media had The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) message that said jewellery sales worth Rs 15,000 crore had taken place across the nation on Akshay Tritiya this year. Consumers across the nation not only purchased in large numbers, they pre-booked their gold for the auspicious occasion. Somasundaram PR, the MD of the World Gold Council, India, had said before the season that the price of gold would be the driving factor for sales in gold in the Indian subcontinent. Post the festival, he said, “Gold buying is an inseparable, nearly mandatory, part of Akshay Tritiya celebrations for millions of Indians. After two years of Covid induced lull, the festive sentiment among trade and consumers appears to be stronger this year, surpassing expectations. Sustained aggressive marketing and trade promotions have played a role in increasing in-store visits and leveraging the occasion. Digital gold buying platforms also sound upbeat, with small buyers enthusiastically picking up the convenience of purchasing gold for as little as one rupee on their smartphone, without having to worry about purity and transparency. Even with gold prices at a high, initial market feedback point to a buoyant Akshay Tritiya, due, in no small measure, to a heightened interest in gold among consumers following risks posed by inflation and global uncertainties.” Arun Narayan, Vice President, Category, Marketing and Retail, Tanishq at Titan Company Limited was buoyant when he said, “We have witnessed a very good response from customers who were looking forward to celebrating Akshay Tritiya after two years. Our exciting new bangle collection ‘Kalai’ has been very well received whilst earrings and finger rings were also favoured. Our safety protocols and preparations ensured that we served very large numbers of customers across our 390 stores whilst sustaining our ‘Gold Standards of Safety'. Our newly introduced Gold Coin ATMs also enabled customers to shop quickly and comfortably. We now look forward, enthused by this response, to a good wedding season ahead.

Akshaya Tritiya is one of the most auspicious days in the Indian festival calendar, known for bringing in prosperity and marking new beginnings. We too have launched a men’s range of jewellery in platinum that is so naturally luminescent and a pristine white metal. It stays white through a lifetime, never losing its white sheen. With a growing preference for choosing what is pure, naturally white, platinum jewellery has seen an uptake this year. VAISHALI BANERJEE Managing Director, India Platinum Guild International

Dr. Saurabh Gadgil, Chairman & Managing Director of PNG Jewellers said, “This year’s Akshay Tritiya has been phenomenal. People are walking into the stores since early morning. We expect buyers to throng the stores right up till 10 p.m. tonight. Prices have corrected too and there is a lot of demand for gold and diamond jewellery alike. Compared to last year, which was an Akshay Tritiya in lockdown and involved online sales, this year is all about visiting the store and making purchases and we are already seeing an increase in numbers by 30% from 2019 sales, which we expect to further increase by the time this day ends.” Retailers from across the nation reported sales and ultimate trends in gold. In Mumbai, Zaveri Bazaar was abuzz with activity. Jewellers had launched special collections especially for the occasion. People thronged stores for there were schemes and offers on purchase for the occasion. Girish Shah from Aakar Jewels said that the sales this year were amazing. “We started selling almost three to four days in advance, as people started pre-booking orders to purchase on the shubh-muhurat. We had people asking for light-weight gold jewellery. As the wedding season too is approaching, the demand is for colouredstone
jewellery collections and people have been making purchases for light-weight gold designs.”

Gold buying is an inseparable, nearly mandatory, part of Akshay Tritiya celebrations for millions of Indians. After two years of Covid induced lull, the festive sentiment among trade and consumers appears to be stronger this year, surpassing expectations. Sustained aggressive marketing and trade promotions have played a role in increasing instore visits and leveraging the occasion. Digital gold buying platforms also sound upbeat, with small buyers enthusiastically picking up the convenience of purchasing gold for as little as one rupee on their smartphone, without having to worry about purity and transparency. SOMASUNDARAM PR Managing Director, World Gold Council, India

Many retailers reported new customers, millenials entering the market and making their token purchases for the first time denoting that the customer spread has
increased since 2019. Gadgil said, “At the top of the pyramid we are seeing people purchase wedding jewellery with average price points starting from 5 lakhs and above while at the bottom of the pyramid of shoppers we are seeing first time buyers making token gold coin and bar purchases with an average price point of 25000. Overall the industry is looking at 25 tonnes plus sales in gold this year across the country as Akshay Tritiya makes a fantastic comeback after a two year hiatus!” And why not, weddings and family celebrations were taking place after two long years. Shopping for weddings was on the mind of most customers who visited stores on this occasion. “As many as 40 lakh weddings are to take place all over India in the next couple of months. There is a lot of demand for necklaces, kadas, heavy wedding jewellery in gold as well as diamonds. Diamond jewellery demand has been surprisingly very strong across cities, tier 2 and tier 3 towns as well. It has outshone all other categories this year. There has also been a significant rise in demand in the men’s category in gold rings, bracelets and accessories, however platinum has received maximum attention and demand in this category,” informs Gadgil.

This year’s Akshay Tritiya has been phenomenal. People are walking into the stores since early morning. We expect buyers to throng the stores right up till 10 p.m. tonight. Prices have corrected too and there is a lot of demand for gold and diamond jewellery alike. Compared to last year, which was an Akshay Tritiya in lockdown and involved online sales, this year is all about visiting the store and making purchases and we are already seeing an increase in numbers by 30% from 2019 sales, which we expect to further increase by the time this day ends. SAURABH GADGIL Chairman & Managing Director, PNG Jewellers

Vaibhav Saraf, Director, Aisshpra Gems & Jewels, UP, happy confesses that after 2 years of spending Akshay Tritiya in a lockdown, the brand was thrilled to witness an amazing response across all their stores. “Since morning, we have had walk-ins and there has been a festive vibe in the stores. While people are buying all sorts of jewellery including gold, diamonds, bridal, bullion is moving as usual for token buyers too. The day exceeded our expectations at least by five times, and we witnessed a crowd of 400 to 500 people in the store at any given hour the whole day. We also concluded our Akshaya Tritiya Lucky Draw contest today and will be announcing the winners for it soon too. One lucky winner will win a car, and another will win a bike. This was our way of just being a part of the festivities.” Shrey Mehta, Director, Pooja Diamonds, Gujarat was happy to note a much heavier footfall for brides taking deliveries of their bridal jewels as it's an auspicious day and other placing orders only to purchase token jewellery pieces. When compared to 2019 Akshay Tritiya, this year we have seen a 100% growth in terms of footfalls as expected. We are happy to see that the pre-pandemic vibe is returning to the market and businesses and consumer behaviours are going back to normalcy. As expected, retail shopping has revived itself at least in the bridal space in spite of the speculations during the pandemic that online may evolve as a dominant shopping channel!” Aditya Pethe, Director, WHP Jewellers for Maharashtra, Goa & MP said, “So far, it has been a very overwhelming response as we have seen a lot of customers since morning, and they are buying across the counters. Customers are buying all kinds of jewellery including Gold, Diamond, Silver and Coins too. We feel that this year's sales will be very robust, and we are expecting more footfalls in the evening, so we are anticipating a 25-30% rise vis-a-vis prepandemic year for today in particular, as well as expecting the rest of this season to do very well.” Reema Pahuja, Director, Tikamdas Motiram Jewellers from Mumbai was of the opinion that as compared to 2019, this year's footfall of clients on Akshay Tritiya is 60% better. Everyone is out to buy on this auspicious day as they got this opportunity after 2 years of lockdown. We are seeing bridal shopping dominantly happening this year, where brides are exploring versatile jewellery pieces that they can reuse even after their wedding.”

We have witnessed a very good response from customers who were looking forward to celebrating Akshay Tritiya after two years. Our exciting new bangle collection ‘Kalai’ has been very well received whilst earrings and finger rings were also favoured. Our safety protocols and preparations ensured that we served very large numbers of customers across our 390 stores whilst sustaining our ‘Gold Standards of Safety'. Our newly introduced Gold Coin ATMs also enabled customers to shop quickly and comfortably. We now look forward, enthused by this response, to a good wedding season ahead. ARUN NARAYAN Vice President, Marketing and Retail, Tanishq, Titan Company Limited

CONSUMERS REGAIN CONFIDENCE IN THE INDUSTRY & RETAIL SHOPPING
Akshay Tritiya this year had opened its doors to real-time purchases after a hiatus of two long years when sales were taking place only online and offline markets were disappointed with the scenario. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director of Kalyan Jewellers noted, "This Akshay Tritiya, we have witnessed a strong momentum across geographies and product segments, resulting in a positive growth outlook. We are encouraged by the significant increase in footfall, sales volume and value, even when compared to the pre-pandemic days of 2019, since the last two year are not comparable due to Covid disruption. The higher traction this Akshay Tritiya could be owing to the lower volatility in gold prices over the past week, further aided by revenge shopping and today's festival holiday. While an uptick in sales in the Southern markets were expected, the response from the non-South markets have also been extremely encouraging,” and he concluded by saying that owing to the heat wave, they were expecting many more walk-ins during the evening hours and that the momentum of demand would increase. “This year was fantastic,” exclaims a buoyant Saket Keshri of Ratnalaya Jewellers from Patna. “Customers were making purchases with unmatched enthusiasm. Akshay Tritiya being the auspicious time for buying gold was all the more successful because the wedding season is around the corner. Clients looking for wedding collections booked their gold well in advance with us. No matter what online sales may have done, customers got more connected with our brand at the store.”Raghav Rastogi, partner at Jugal Kishore Jewellers in Lucknow was of the opinion that Akshay Tritiya was a great relief after the miserable market condition for the past few months! “At my store, I witnessed many of our regular customers entering with smiling faces and shopping on their minds. They had the opportunity to make a real-time purchase after almost 2 years. The entire day was a grand success with people thronging our store and asking for the latest that we had on offer,” he shares. The capital city of New Delhi was buoyant with a wave of joy flowing through the jewellery community. Rohan Sharma, MD, RK Jewellers SE2 said, “This year we had an unusually high demand for the summer season of weddings. This event after two years cannot be taken for granted; we are taking all the precautionary measures, knowing the possibility of another Covid wave in India.” Shrey Mehta, Director, Pooja Diamonds informed that sales had already picked up at his store 20 days prior to Akshay Tritiya. “We have had good sales on Akshay Tritiya and are satisfied with the growing demand.” We at Indian Jeweller safely conclude that Akshay Tritiya 2022 was a welcome change for the stagnant atmosphere of the market. Fears about online sales bettering realtime purchases were laid to rest. With many collections launched and a wave of optimism in the industry, the future sure seems to glow a bright yellow with the glitter of gold!