Tanishq has brought in around Rs 100 crore sales through video calls in the last 2 months

• With an aim of ensuring the safety of all its stakeholders, Tanishq has been ramping up its digital offerings and reaping the results.
• With the help of video calls and Whatsapp chats, the brand has been able to not only smoothen the consumer journey but also bring in sales of close to Rs 100 crore, just through video calls.
• Ajoy Chawla, CEO, Jewellery Division at Titan Company Ltd talks to us about all that the brand has been doing to bring consumers back to the segment and how it plans to grow its business in the future.

We are living in unprecedented times, and the last few months have been a test for all of us. The Covid-19 lockdown brought businesses to a complete halt, and resulted in many changes in the way we live and consume.

Over the past few months, most brands have observed massive changes in consumer behavior and the next few months might go in analyzing these changes. However, things are now slowly opening up and while we are still some distance away from going back to our normal lives, we are seeing some semblance of normalcy returning to our lives on a day-to-day basis.

It has been interesting to understand how brands weathered this storm and how many came out of it relatively less impacted. It is also interesting to see how they are slowly getting back into the game and ensuring that the impact of this unprecedented situation is minimized on their businesses.

With the festive season on us, brands are hopeful. This is usually the time when brands see a lot of demand and a lot of hope rests on this year’s festive as people want to feel good and there is a hope that some of the consumer spending will come back.

We recently caught up with Ajoy Chawla, CEO, Jewellery Division at Titan Company Ltd who told us all that has happened at Tanishq in the last few months, how the brand is preparing for the future. As a brand, Tanishq is giving a massive push to not just its digital presence, but also the way it is conducting its business. The brand had been on a journey to become digital-first and its plans got accelerated due to the Covid-induced lockdown.

Using Digital to grow

While the lockdown is slowly opening up across the country, the pandemic is far from over and people realize that. Tanishq has done a lot of social listening and is aware that people are skeptical about visiting showrooms. To help them get rid of this fear, while also ensuring their business is not hampered, Tanishq has been devising a 360 degree digital plan to help consumers complete their journeys. With the help of video calls, Whatsapp chats and virtual appointments, Tanishq has launched the ‘Endless Aisle’ concept that gives consumers an access to almost its complete inventory. The video calling and endless aisle facility have already been rolled out in 260 out of its 330 stores.

“Our video calling offering has gained so much traction since we launched that we have already served close to 4000-5000 customers. Moreover, we've done around Rs 100 crore of sales through video calling alone in the last 2 months,” shared Chawla. He also said that they have been doing about 10,000 to 12,000 live Whatsapp chats a month. “We have also noticed that our online sales have exploded and gone through the roof. It was a small number but it has grown four times,” he added.

He also shared that a lot of these consumers aren’t exactly savvy online buyers but people who are relatively newer to online purchases. In most cases, 90% of the consumer journey is getting completed virtually and consumers just need to go to the showrooms for trial and make the final purchase, thereby reducing risk and ensuring safety for them. Chawla believes that collaboration between online and offline is the way forward for the brand.

It is also been doing its bit to make its showrooms safe, and Chawla says that their efforts are being noticed by consumers. “We are making sure that all stakeholders, be it our employees or our consumers are safe. In fact, our safety measures are so good that we have had consumers tell us they feel safer at our showroom than in their own homes,” says Chawla with a laugh.

Anticipating a good festive season

Usually, the festive months are important for jewellery brands and this year, a lot of hopes rest on the next few months. Chawla says he is hopeful for a good festive season. “If I go by how things are right now, there’s no reason why we won’t see a good festive season. Realistically, we can’t expect it to be 100% as last year but even if it is around 80-90% of last year, that’s good. We are already seeing good recovery,” he said. The brand is aiming for full recovery by Q4.

Currently, close to 90% of the brand’s showrooms are already up and running and each of the stores have been seeing good, gradual recovery.

On why he thinks consumer sentiments might become positive, he said, “People are a little tired now of this entire experience. They now want to come out and feel good about something. They might not buy as much as they otherwise would have but maybe they will buy lower weights, or smaller pieces, but at the end of the day, they would want to feel good. With the deferred festive season and weddings falling in the second half, we are expecting the second half of the year to be better.”

The brand will come up with festive campaigns and also come up with a new collection.

Tanishq’s growth and marketing strategy

Despite being hit by the lockdown, Chawla shared that the brand opened 9 new stores. “We are not slowing down, we have just taken a pause,” he said.

To bring people back to the brand, Tanishq will be working on launching new collections. “New collections, design differentiation and design-led desire creation has been a pillar of growth for Tanishq and will continue to be so,” he added. He further said that the brand will continue launching offers and promotions during the festive season.

It has been getting good traction on its Golden Harvest scheme as a part of which the buyer has to pay 10 monthly installments (minimum Rs 2,000), the maturity of which starts after 300 days from the date of enrollment. The buyer is eligible for a 75% discount of one month installment upon the completion of 365 days from the date of joining. The brand has plans to further strengthen this offering and attract more customers.

Moreover, as a pilot, the brand is also offering the best gold rates to consumers in certain markets and based on the reception, it will expand this offering to the rest of the country. It will also give a push to its digital initiatives.

“We will be heavily present on digital platforms, and on social media. We will focus more on one-to-one conversations with customers. We have close to 10,000 people in our ecosystem. When they reach out and make a video call everyday, that’ll make a huge number. So we will work on scaling this up. You will see more personalized communications and direct connects with our consumers,” he added.