Gold jewellery sales: More people came, but bought less
Gold jewellery sales increased almost 10- 15 per cent this year on auspicious Akshaya Trithiya
By : ktp radhika
Update: 2015-04-22 05:23 GMT
Chennai: Gold jewellery sales increased almost 10- 15 per cent this year on auspicious Akshaya Trithiya here which is said to be India’s largest jewellery retail hub this year. City-based jewellers saw an uptick in sales, compared to the past few years.However, industry experts say this time around, the sales did not match expectations. “The sales were overall positive, Overall, jewellery sales went up by 10 per cent, compared to last year. But sale of gold coins dropped by 20 per cent this year," said
N. Anantha Padmanabhan, regional director, All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation. This is mainly due to a drop in gold prices. he added. L.K. Syed Ahmed, chief advisor of Tamil Nadu Jewellers Federation, said the industry expected very good business this year. “We were expecting more than 50 per cent increase in the business as gold price was very low compared to the last few years. But that did not happen.” He added that even if the footfalls were high in jewellery shops, that did not reflect in the sales. Many shops experienced almost 20 to 25 per cent increase in footfalls.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director, marketing & operations, Kalyan Jewellers, said there was positive consumer sentiment due to stable gold prices. “Gold prices have declined by nearly 10 per cent from a year earlier. We have seen robust increase in all our categories including chains, bangles and rings. We have also seen good advance bookings for bridal jewellery,” he added.
Gold rush sees 10-15 per cent sales rise
There were 240 policemen and 150 traffic police personnel on the streets of T. Nagar Tuesday. But they could not prevent or stop the surge of shoppers thronging jewellery stores on the occasion of Akshaya Trithiya. Sailaja Nistala, a homemaker from Tambaram, was among the thousands who jostled for space to get a closer look at glistening gold jewellery.
“With my five-year-old kid, I had to jostle through the crowd. When I came in the morning, the crowd was manageable, but in the evening it increased,” she said, adding that despite the rush, she managed to find a pair of earrings for her daughter. A second-year B.Tech student, Sreedevi Ganapathi, came all the way from Vadapalani but was disappointed because she could not buy from her shop of preference. “There was not an inch of space left to ask the shopkeepers to display different sets of jewellery. The shopkeepers were unable to manage the crowd. Instead, I bought earrings from another store that was comparatively less crowded.”
Nageswara Rao road, the arterial road that runs through T. Nagar, was packed with shopaholics from different parts of Chennai. The traffic build-up began from the morning and was chaotic by evening. Even though cars were diverted to a parking area, pedestrians found it difficult to manoeuvre the barricaded streets. Police personnel made announcements on mikes throughout the day to pedestrians and vehicle users.
Sreedevi added, “Every year, I come with my mother and sister to buy jewellery on this auspicious day as it is said it brings prosperity. It is really difficult to go out shopping when there is a huge traffic and the shops are overcrowded, but we manage it somehow as the occasion comes onlly once a year.” To manage the crowd, traffic and law and order police came together this year. Around 25 cameras were installed and police also had their mobile phone cameras to detect any act of theft. “The crowd was less in the morning and increased only in the evening. Compared to last year, this year the crowd is less. The reason is that Akshay Tritiya fell on a Tuesday. On Tuesdays, some people don’t buy gold jewellery. It was the branded shops that people rushed to today,” said sub-inspector G.Venkatesan. According to some of the shopkeepers and police, the crowd was abnormal and unmanageable three years back. But the situation has improved now.