#IamIBMexpert

A perspective by Kalyan Chakravarthy M M, Associate Director - Consumer Industry, IBM Consulting India/South Asia.

Recently one of our partners asked me about my views on the Jewellery industry in India and my almost instant answer was – it is an industry of contrasts.

With approximately 29% share, India is one of the largest jewellery consumer markets in the world. Here both the manufacturing side and the retail chains are a mix of organised and unorganised players with thousands of manufacturers and retailers of all sizes thriving alongside lakhs of artisans, smaller groups and local retail outlets.

One of the biggest challenges the sector is facing currently is losing the advantage of curating and referencing historic designs. The industry produces thousands of jewellery designs every month. Owing to this sheer volume and disparity in sources, only a small percentage of those designs can be easily referenced.

The recent disruptions in the sector such as the COVID-19 pandemic, rise of e-commerce, changing consumer interests and impact of supply chain have further compounded the inherent issues.

This has led to accelerated adoption of technologies such as #Hybrodcloud, #AI, #Analytics, #DataManagement and #Blockchain - offering hope to the industry. For instance, cloud offers ability to store the jewellery designs as a permanent, easily accessible archive, which can help inspire newer designs and reproduction. AI enabled tools can also transform and facilitate search. We have witnessed these solutions come to life in the case of Emerald Jewellery.

Technology can also offer high quality Virtual Try On (VTO) solutions to help customers experience jewellery designs from the comfort of their Mobile or Desktop devices. Advanced analytics and AI can further help designers to create jewellery design configurators.

Going forward we are likely to witness an increase in the ‘Made 2 Order’ business. It requires advanced DIY capabilities with digital design tools for customers, virtual 3D creator for VTO before ordering and finally culminating into 3D printing their design – all of which has technology at its core.

Click here to learn more about the Emerald Jewellery digital transformation.
 

For further information please reach out to Vinay Krishnan at vinay.krishnan@in.ibm.com