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To cash in on the festive season the jewellers in Ahmedabad have come together and organised a grand shopping festival on lines of annual Dubai Festival from October 1 to October 23. Further upbeat on lower gold and silver prices the jewelers are also expecting 15-20 per cent growth in sales compared to last year.
Gold prices that were around Rs 32,500 per 10 grams during last Diwali were hovering around Rs 27,000 per 10 grams this year. Also, silver prices this year before Diwali were around Rs 39,000 per kg compared to around Rs 49,000 per kg last year during Diwali.
As many as 60 jewelers under the Ahmedabad Jewellers' Association had launched the grand shopping festival "Swarna Utsav" on October 1 which will continue till Diwali.
One of the key motives behind organising this festival is also to recover the losses being incurred by the jewelers in the past six months due to lack of business, besides introducing new promotional schemes to attract customers this festive season.
Jewellers feel that with gold prices in retail around Rs 27,000 per 10 grams and decline in silver prices, sales of precious metals would increase this year. "There are number of factors that would benefit sales of jewellery this season. First is the lower gold price in the retail market. The Rs 27,000 per 10 grams rate will lure more people to jewellery shops this year compared last year when the prices were above Rs 30,000 per 10 grams," said Shantibhai Patel, president of the Ahmedabad Jewellers' Association.
Also, with good monsoon season people will have more money to buy gold and silver this Diwali and the coming marriage season, he claimed. To attract customers, Patel said, the association has offered gifts and discounts at all its members' stores across the city. "We have organised this shopping festival on lines of the Dubai shopping festival. We also plan to make this an annual feature and make it big every year," Patel explained.
According to Patel, average volume of sales during the Diwali season is around Rs 150 crore. "This year we expect sales to go up by 15-120 per cent due to low gold and silver prices and good monsoon," he added.
Another jeweller Girish Soni said the sales of jewellry would also go up as the making charges which depends on gold prices would also come down. "With jewellers offering heavy discounts on making charges people will be more attracted for jewellery purchase rather than the gold coins and bars," Soni of Shree Ambika Jwellers said. Also, sentiment in the market is positive which could boost sales this season, he believed.
Nitin Nachnani, research analyst at Geojit Comtrade Ltd said that through the sale would be higher this season, the prices of yellow mental was less likely to go down further. "People who are waiting for the gold and silver prices to go down will be disappointed. Looking at the global cues prices are not likely to go down further from the Rs 26,400 -26,200 per 10 grms level," Nachnani said. He expected the sales of jewellery to pick up in the next 10 days.
