CaratLane to set up 10 offline stores by March

Jewellery portal CaratLane will set up 10 retail stores across cities like Hyderabad, Delhi and Indore over the next four months, taking its offline presence to 40 outlets by the end of March next year.
CaratLane had started operations as an online player. Last year, Tata group firm Titan had bought 62 per cent stake in the company for Rs 357.24 crore.
"We have 30 retail stores now and by the end of this fiscal, we should have 10 more. These are being set up across places like Delhi, Hyderabad and Indore," CaratLane Vice President (Offine Sales) Prashant Chaudhary told PTI.

He added these will be a mix of company-owned and franchise stores.
Asked about the investment, he said each store -- depending on the size and location -- needs about Rs 60-80 lakh, which is either borne by the company or franchise partner.
Chaudhary said, while the retail stores contribute about 55 per cent of the company's revenues, online is an important channel that brings new customers.

"Both online and offline are growing at a significant pace. Online has grown 100 per cent and beyond, there is strong growth in traffic and transactions online," he added.
Chaudhary noted that customers are now more comfortable buying jewellery online than before.

"While there are transactions that could be in lakhs, usually customers tend to shop for upto Rs 25,000 when online. Beyond that, I think they want to see the product first and that is where our cash on delivery, retail stores and try at home service comes in," he said.
Chaudhary said the decision to open stores is data- driven.
"It's not that we just pick cities randomly. We are setting up our stores depending on where we are seeing demand and traction online. That is why we are looking at cities like Chandigarh, Ludhiana. Next year will be more about tier II cities," he added.