Forevermark, the diamond brand from the De Beers Group, says India will become the top market for the brand by 2020. Stephen Lussier, Chairman, Forevermark, says, “China is our No 1 market today and India is No 2 but if we continue the way we are progressing, soon India will be on the top.”
Currently, the brand has 240 retail doors across India and growing rapidly. By the end of this financial year, the brand aims to take the total number of retail doors to 275.
“The focus is less on growing the number of partners, and more on going deeper into the existing markets with our existing partners. We aim to increase our volume scale by 40-50 percent and our partner growth by 10-15 percent,” stated Lussier.
Technology: Paving the Way to Success
To aid the expansion plans of the brand, many technology breakthroughs have been introduced, with the group using technology as an aid to increase sales.
“In the beginning, we started with Forevermark Viewer – it lets customer see the inscription on the diamond in a magical way. Now, we are more looking at things that let customers connect their digital self with the real self. We are also using technology which lets them see and try on the design and then connect to those designs later through their phones,” he explains.
Store Design
Apart from technology, the brand is also improving the existing store design.
“The jewellery market in India is dominated by gold jewellery sector. It is important to find ways to attract young consumers towards diamond jewellery and to achieve that you need store environment which delivers modern luxury retail experiences,” says Lussier.
The new store design of the brand is integrating various aspects of customer experience like unique signatures to depict the journey of a Forevermark diamond with integrated digital experiences making it a data hub, a discovery wall allowing a piece of Kimberlite to be touched by onlookers and a shopper’s path showing how a customer moves inside a Forevermark store, pointing out the attraction nodes.
“To understand what a consumer feels about this whole new look, we used VR search. We actually made a 3D 360-degree design and we got consumers to have a glance through at the new look with the help of VR. We tracked their eye movements and also where they spent maximum time. We figured out the areas we need to improve and accordingly rejigged the new design,” he concludes.
