Usually, the demand for gold starts witnessing an upward climb during Navratri, peaking near Dusshera, but this year, with the global economy impaired and poor monsoon in the country, the festive season so far has seen muted demand for the precious metal, despite low prices.
Dhanteras is an auspicious day to buy gold. On this day, customers flock to jewellery stores that remain open way after their usual closing time, to accommodate demand, and buy gold or silver.
Dhanteras which usually falls two days ahead of the Diwali festival, is considered as a 'gold buying day'.
Usually, the demand for gold starts witnessing an upward climb during Navratri, peaking near Dusshera, but this year, with the global economy impaired and poor monsoon in the country, the festive season so far has seen muted demand for the precious metal, despite low prices.
AmarKosh
The city based jewelry store, has seen more demand in enquiries this year as compared to the last festive season versus actual sales.
"People are not investing as they have in previous years. During the festive season, especially around Dhanteras, purchases are more focused towards coins, etc," said Archana Parasrampuria, founder of AmarKosh.
Having said that, she was optimistic about the sales to recover with the wedding season around the corner, if not during festive season.
SLG Jewellers
The luxury jewellery brand feels that with the stability in the gold prices for the last couple of months, the demand picked up after Sharadh, where people avoid buying any jewellery, property or cars.
"During Navratri/Dushehra, demand for jewellery was better than previous year. Instability in the share market has also contributed to the sudden rise of jewelry demand because gold is a safer option than equities", said Shashank Goyal, Director, SLG Jewellers.
Dwarkadas Chandumal Jewellers
Navratri and Diwali are two auspicious occasion for Indians to buy gold jewellery or to invest in gold coins and bars. While the price of gold is currently trading between Rs 27,200 - 27,500 per 10 grams, which is lower than last year’s Rs 29,500, the demand and sale for the commodity has muted compared to previous year due to depressed economic conditions. However, with the onset of wedding season and Diwali we are expecting a rise in customer demand for heavy jewellery.
Online jewelry portals
As the gems and jewellery sector is still growing and expanding, the precious metals and jewellery market has also entered into the e-commerce space.
When we contacted a few online jewellery retailers about the response of the customers in this festive season, most of them said people were more cautious this year, but were hopeful that demand will pick up.
Jewel Hub
"The Demand during Navratri this year and Dusshera was sluggish and muted to a larger extent. Though, demand and sales did pick up as compared to first nine months but not to a satisfactory level, said Bhavin Mehta, co-founder of Jewel Hub.
Mehta also mentioned that though there were several inquiries, they did not necessarily convert into sales as the buyers were very cautious and selective about the products.
Pointing on the gold prices, he said that diamonds has seen better demand than gold due to fluctuating gold prices.
Jewelsify.com
Unlike Jewels Hub, Jewelsify.com experienced good demand and sales during the festive season as compared to the last Navratri/Dhanteras season.
The demand was up due to new launches and designs across the precious metals, said Hardik Kapoor, Founder of Jewelsify.com.
Seeming optimistic about diamonds than gold, Kapoor said "Diamond is the present and the diamond is the future. We get more and more inquires about diamond jewellery every day. So yes, diamond is the thing today in the market".
Artanddecors.com
Luxury e-commerce brand for decors and lifestyle products, artanddecors.com says that demand and sale of gold is down this year in the country as nearly two-third of the demand for gold in India comes from rural areas which has been hit by the bad farm output and poor monsoon.
"There could be a slight uplift for Dhanteras and Diwali, but overall the demand is not going to dramatically improve", said Divyan Gupta, CEO & Founder, Artanddecors.com.
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