The stakeholder who can drive the demand for almost everything in the new world, post COVID19, is the consumer. It is important to touch upon this new change and transform consumers and share views about how this epidemic will change the behaviour and expectations.
Shifts are happening in consumer behaviour during the ongoing pandemic and the future is uncertain. The high amount of uncertainty is there about when the growth of jewellery businesses will resume. Jewellery is always considered a luxury or discretionary product. There are questions like how consumers are going to react and how they are going to allocate their money or how we can build trust again with consumers.
Asia seems to be more optimistic than Europe when it comes to money allocation by consumers. Concerns about financial security have grown. Older working professionals are more worried about economic uncertainties. Almost 46% of the consumers believe in saving for the future and more so in the case of people facing job insecurities. All high-end discretionary purchases have come to a standstill.
Food essentials and medical essentials have taken priority. What about jewellery? People are less likely to buy jewellery for occasions like marriages or birthdays. The hierarchy starts with your basic/physiological needs moving on to the safety part and lastly self-actualization products. Lighter jewellery associated with love and belonging can be the first category that will come back post COVID19. It all depends on how well you can serenade the consumer or how well can you create desire.
There are two important things – value consciousness and seeking comfort in the brands that you are comfortable with. Another important thing is attention to the origin of the product as safety has become the most important concern. Retailers will have to understand the value of customer targeting and retention strategies. Leveraging the “Make in India” program will be of great advantage.
To build trust
Trust plays an important role in building a better professional relationship. Winning back customers’ trust becomes important if you really want to bring them back. To achieve the same jewellery business owners must keep the following points in mind.
Authenticity – You must follow what you claim or say. Action is important.
Honesty – Create a transparent atmosphere by listening to customers carefully.
Integrity – We all are facing a big change and a business owner must understand this. Decency must be maintained. Be compassionate.
Amidst the chaos, there is opportunity also
The behaviour of consumers sitting at home is also crucial at the moment. They are spending more on entertainment and communication mediums. The demand creation becomes important and a jewellery business owner must think of ways of how to reach out to the targeted consumers.
The new normal
The normalcy is not far after the lockdown. In China also life is coming back to normal too. One should believe in “Renewed consumerism” i.e., people have started coming back to their old buying habits out of optimism.
While staying at home people are doing maximum things online. For example, Game nights, online parties, date nights, online payments or synchronized streaming are becoming normal. This has become a new normal. Hyper local deliveries have also become normal, where users are creating groups on platforms like Whatsapp and placing orders.
When it comes to the luxury market like the jewellery market, India is likely to follow China and bring back normalcy.
All businesses are going through transformation and the jewellery business is not an exception. We must use this phase in planning for the future recovery.
Business owners are utilizing this phase in providing training to people and their staff, for future.
Virtual stores are coming up and are operating via e-commerce.
Ultimately, the jewellery shopping will come back to normal but as per the occasion, the budget and of course, the emotions/aspiration.
