Caratlane's growth rate increases after acquisition by Titan

Caratlane would be increasing its count of physical stores to around 75 by next financial year

Caratlane, the online jewellery brand acquired by Titan in 2016, has seen its growth increasing to around 70 per cent from a 25 per cent growth during the previous year. One of the major factors that influenced higher growth is understood to be its association with the Titan brand, which the company has started leveraging through an advertisement campaign.

The company posted a revenue of around Rs 185 crore in 2016-17. This was expected to go up to over Rs 300 crore this financial year and to touch around Rs 500 crore next financial year, said Mithun Sachethi, founder & CEO of Caratlane.

"The access to Titan's infrastructure has been a great support to the growth of Caratlane. The trust the Tatas and the Titan owns is important to the online jewellery business, which has to be built on trust," he said.

The price range of products listed on the e-commerce website has gone up from around 10,000 a couple of years back, to Rs 25,000 now. The traffic has also increased to a few thousand visitors a day to the website, to around 100,000 visitors a day. On Diwali, the company has seen around 350,000 visitors hitting its online page.

While only a small share of the visits convert into business at present, he said that his efforts are to increase the repeated visit by the potential customers, rather than focusing only on conversion.

The company is also looking at introducing smart jewellery, which can communicate with other smart devices. An announcement with this regard is expected to be made in a few months.

As part of its omnichannel presence, Caratlane would be expanding its physical stores to around 75 by next financial year, from the current 30 stores. The expansion would be focused on Tier I and II cities. This is expected to help the company to gain more visibility among the young customers. The company targets youngsters between the age of 25-35, who would buy a jewellery online for a price up to Rs 25,000.

The company may not be able to sell through the Tanishq stores, the Titan brand jewellery outlets across the country since both are addressing different sets of customers.

Titan Company Ltd in July 2016 announced the acquisition of around 62 per cent of shares in online jewellery Carat Lane Trading Pvt Ltd, for a consideration of Rs 357.24 crore. The integration of the online business into its portfolio has been completed, said the company officials.