Affordable luxury brand, Swarovski, which is growing at a healthy double digit rate in India and gearing up to enter its next phase of growth, is facing a peculiar problem of limited supply of locations.

“India is a market that is growing fast for Swarovski where we are recording double digit growth. According to Euromonitor, the $135-million fashion jewellery market in India grew 25 per cent in 2019 and is estimated to double in the next four years. As part of phase two of the development of brand Swarovski, which is positioned as a premium to affordable luxury brand, we could double our retail footprint in India because of the huge potential in this market. But, there are not enough locations available in Malls and High Streets that would suit the brand from a positioning point of view,” Lars Schmidt, Managing Director – Consumer Goods Business, Southeast Asia and India, Swarovski, told BusinessLine .

“However, there is a lot of development happening at the moment not only in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi but alsoall over India. A lot of malls and mixed-use developments are under construction, as a result of which, supply will increase in the future. While it is not that there is no possibility for us to grow, but supply is basically one of the limiting factors for expanding our retail footprint at present,” he said.

Swarovski is one of the first international brands in the fashion jewellery category to have launched in India 20 years ago, and has since then established a retail network of 45 mono-brand stores and 120 multi-brand stores located primarily in Malls and High Streets in metros including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, with a few stores in Tier-2 and -3 cities.

Key products

The three key product categories offered in Swarovski stores are jewellery, watches and crystal figurines/home decor items. Swarovski products are also available online on its own website and on Myntra.com. The average ticket size in India hovers between €100 and €120.

Of the 14 markets that Schmidt oversees, India holds the largest growth potential, making it the company’s focus market not only for 2020 but for the years to come. “One of the reasons that I am on my third trip to India within only four months of taking over this new role is because of the importance of this market, where we are planning to continue to accelerate growth with increased investments and resources. While Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are the top three markets in my cluster, India will be among the top three soon and will hopefully be the largest market in our cluster within the next five years,” said Schmidt.

In 2019, Swarovski came up with a Diwali campaign in India for the first time, creating assets including visuals, promotions, communications, videos, in-store events and curated collections for Diwali.

“The two main pillars of growth for us in India from a brand perspective are – gifting during festival seasons like Diwali or Raksha Bandhan and gifting throughout the year. Indian consumers are getting more interested in accessorising and expressing themselves through how they dress. Jewellery plays a huge role in this. Our everyday fashion jewellery is easy on the pocket unlike gold and precious metals jewellery,” he said.

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