This Akshaya Tritiya is likely to be tough for Jewellers

Akshaya Tritiya is on Sunday and in many States, this is an important time to buy jewellery. The month usually makes up for 15% of annual sales and is only just behind the October-November festival period. Lucklily for Jewellers, the GOI yesterday announced that non-essential stores could open under certain conditions. But this is unlikely to help jewellers substantially

– Most Residents are unlikely to venture out and if they are really keen, would purchase online

– At Rs 48000 (In Mumbai), Gold Prices are at an all time high with a 50% jump in the last 12 months.

– With no clear visibility on the economy, even online purchases would be constrained

– Gold Imports in March have crashed by a massive 73% indicating low sales possibility

– Google Trends indicates interest for Jewellery is not as high as last year. One, search volumes are down by half. Two, Last year it was 2.2 times higher than Akshaya Tritiya, this year, same time it is 1.6 times higher which means, Akshaya Tritiya is not giving the leg up like last year.

– Titan, a big player in this segment has underperformed the index in the last one month.

All said and done, tough one month ahead of Jewellery Brands (Just like other categories) and may be even longer.