In an e-commerce market that is slowly filling up with numerous jewellery brands and online retail stores, launching an e-store is tantamount to a fight for survival. Analysing the prevailing market situation, jewellery brand ORRA is opting to expand its brick-and-mortar reach where e-commerce will be complementing the journey.
CEO and Founder Director of ORRA, Vijay Jain, told Indiaretailing Bureau on the sidelines of India Fashion Forum 2017, “We are encouraging people to come in to the stores as it is a high value proposition and if that piece is available in any part of the country then we will make sure that it comes to the consumer through our Omnichannel approach.”
He further added, “Currently, online contributes approximately 5 per cent to the overall revenue but I think it will jump dramatically because we are defining online not as product-centric place from where we only deliver, we are providing an experience where even if a consumer books the jewellery online, he/she can come to the store and pick it up. So we are looking at a 360 degree Omnichannel approach.”
At present, ORRA is delivering to all pincodes in the country where couriers reach, with focus being on areas where their own stores are present.
Explaining this, Jain said, “So, there is organic traffic – brought about by a process of business expansion by increased output, customer base expansion, or new product development. Then there is inorganic growth – where the company makes efforts to get consumer traction. However, instead of focusing online, we prefer to focus on our stores in high streets because the ROI there is much higher for us, simply because high value transaction consumers generally walk in to the store to experience the products. Online stores are more for discovery. Fulfillment is the consumer’s choice – can be online or offline.”
The brand also retails through marketplace Amazon and has no plans to explore the opportunities with other e-commerce players.
Expansion Plans
ORRA has presence is 24 cities and retails through 33 EBOs apart from online presence. On an average the store size is around 1,200 – 1,500 sq.ft sized stores but in some places like South Ex and Noida, ORRA has three-level stores.
“Most of our stores are standalone highstreet stores and now we are moving into mall stores as well. We have already got 4-5 mall stores but in the present situation, we are looking forward to open more 8-10 ten stores in the mall in the current year,” revealed Jain.
He further added, “We are also looking at franchise-led growth. We are also putting forward funding model so that it just become plug and play and by July-August, we will be able to roll out in a full-fledged manner.”
Despite the difficult year, last fiscal the same store growth has been positive for the brand and this year, the brand is positive that is will be back to its 20 per cent same store growth.
Unlike other jewelers, diamond contribute to 50 per cent overall sales of ORRA.
Technology is the Key to Success
The brand, which was launched in 2004 and soon became India’s most trusted diamond brand among other brands, is also investing heavily on technology.
“We are spending huge amounts of money right across on softwares – on manufacturing side, digital side and on the ERP side. But our focus is can we get each of these different diverse platforms to talk to them versus looking at them as different parts. So for most people e-commerce is a separate channel but for us it is an integrated channel,” concluded Jain.
