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 2018, “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 percent 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. Whether it is online or offline customer, we identify them as same as assure to provide same seamless experience.”
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.
The brand also retails through marketplace Amazon.
Market Positioning and Customer Profile
ORRA is a premium diamond jewellery brand with an unparalleled diamond heritage of over 125 years, catering to an astute group of consumers.
According to Jain, “Our target audience are primarily women in the age group of 25 to 45 years, who have a discerning and uncompromising sense of style and aesthetics. These women are their own decision-makers. They are conscious of quality as well as know what value their money should buy them, which is why they invest their money in branded jewellery that exudes trust and assures them of fantastic quality.”
ORRA is present across three categories – diamond, platinum and gold jewellery. Going forward, the focus will largely be on the patented ORRA Crown Star diamond – ORRA Crown Star diamond, a patented design with 73 facets vs. the regular 57 faceted diamond – apart from the regular diamond and platinum jewellery.
Unlike other categories in jewellery, it is possible to cater and own the consumer for their whole life-cycle tapestry. Therefore, going forward there will be a sharper focus on product offerings which can help in customer acquisition, such as ORRA Platinum Couples (his and her engagement bands), career carats for the bridal segment, spiritual themed collections for the consumer segment who is more spiritually inclined etc.
Location Strategy
ORRA clearly focuses on standalone stores and not the shop-in-shop format. Historically, ORRA has been present in high street stores, but in the recent past has also been focusing on mall stores.
“High street stores for ORRA have been traditionally larger and we tend to have higher value stock, and are largely dependent on the brand pull. In the malls, on the other hand, while the stores are smaller they have the advantage of the mall footfall and higher browsing by customers as well,” revealed Jain.
Marketing Strategy
The brand has been a firm believer in creating experiential marketing, thereby building trust and a long-term relationship with customers. Any communication or promotion is made robust with our integrated 360-degree approach. Keeping in tune with the changing media habits of the customers the brand has a renewed focus on new-age media like social media, brand and marketplace websites.
“We have a strong presence across popular social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube,” asserted Jain.
He further added, “We engage our customers through value added content as well as transactional benefits through periodical exclusive offers. Usually, such promotional offers are in sync to the regional and national festive fervor. Our customers look forward to such ORRA sponsored celebration for the very fact that they find value in it and it adds to their festivities.”
Same Store Sales Growth
Over the last five years, the diamond-centric brand has done 43 percent CAGR when it comes to same store sales growth.
“Instead of adding on number of stores, we are focusing more on increasing the inventory at each of our stores. We are looking at the same-store growth of 50 percent next year,” asserted Jain.
He further added, “This year, we have actually seen consumers coming back to the store which is very interesting because after a couple of years, we are seeing same-store volume growth. So, while we move consumers into higher-value purchase, this time we are seeing volumes increase as well.”
Expansion Plans
ORRA, the brand which has just started the franchising journey, is also looking forward to open company-owned stores.
“Our preference is to first build company-owned showrooms and then go for franchisee stores. We will be opening 8-10 stores this fiscal year.” revealed Jain.
Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab are the targeted areas where the brand is looking forward to open more stores.
According to Jain, “We prefer to open stores in clusters as there are two advantages attached to it, first, it reduces marketing spends and second, inventory can be easily moved around that cluster.”
He further added, “Five years from now, we see ourselves as a premium and focussed brand. We will continue to provide unmatched customer experience whether it is online or offline.”
Tracing Brand’s History
ORRA’s journey began in 2004 through the reinvention of a family jewellery brand which was then called Inter Gold Gems and was largely run as a gifting brand in terms of smaller pieces of jewellery. In a gold dominated market, the company had very high aspirations and wanted to build a ‘diamond’ centric consumer business at a ‘national’ level. This meant not only building a scalable organization through an addition of people, technology, organizational structure, design focus and supply chain but also conceptualizing and launching a new brand.
