Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Gudi Padwa, the conventional new year for Maharashtrians, is a day when shoppers throng the jewelry retailers to obtain ornaments. But with retail activity place to a halt in Maharashtra, jewelers are losing hope of shining sales that mark these festive days. With market reports citing a stricter lockdown in the days to come, there is worry of a greater percentage of cancellations of created-to-order products that are now lying in the showrooms.
“Many people place their orders months in advance so they can get delivery on the auspicious days of Gudi Padwa. The number of walk-ins is also huge and jewelers plan in advance and stock up inventory for these days, but with showrooms closed, hardly any sales are happening,” Ashish Pethe, Chairman of market body The All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) who runs 23 jewelry showrooms across Maharashtra told TheSpuzz Online. He mentioned on the web sales on their web site are continuing but it is marginal, not more than 15 per cent.
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He mentioned even though shoppers are calling, they are unable to do considerably other than directing them to their web site. “This year the lockdown has happened just on the face of Gudi Padwa so we haven’t had the time to put all our inventory online and prepare for the new reality,” he added.
Industry body GJC estimates that auspicious days of Gudhi Padwa and Akshaya Tritiya collectively constitute practically 30- 40 per cent of the annual sales for jewelers.
Nitin Khandelwal, Promoter of Akola-based Khandelwal Jewellers mentioned that even though showrooms are shut they have been in a position to get permission to provide the created-to-order jewelry to customer’s properties straight. He added that they are also making use of Whatsapp to get individuals to spot orders on the web. “While sales are less and can’t be compared to normal times, people are buying today to leverage the decline in gold prices,” he mentioned.
“The shop has been operating in losses yet we are continuing to pay salaries to 110 people employed with us. Gems and jewelry has been recognised by the government as one of the stressed sectors and many more allowances and concessions are required to keep our business and the sector overall afloat,” mentioned Khandelwal who runs 3 jewelry showrooms. He is also the Chairperson of the Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Akola.
Mumbai-based jewelry wholesaler Saiyam Mehra mentioned that even though they had sufficient demand earlier but the lockdown has changed the enterprise dynamics. He mentioned new orders are not coming in regardless of the festival and cancelations of placed orders is also as higher as 30 per cent. “If lockdown continues the cancellations can go up to 70 per cent from Maharashtra region itself. Jewelry buying is occasion centric and if consumers are unable to wear it for the specific day, many chose to cancel the order,” he mentioned. Mehra’s firm Unique Chains employs about 2,000 karigars. He added that practically 30 per cent karigars have currently returned to their property towns in West Bengal and a lot of more are preparing fearing the stricter lockdown in the days to come. “If they go, then it would be very difficult to get them back and the entire supply chain will further get disrupted,” he mentioned.
Last week, GJC, which represents more than 6,00,000 players connected to the sector, had written to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray to let jewelers to operate on the festive days in the month of April and the upcoming wedding season.