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Despite rising gold prices and negative market sentiments, online players enjoyed good demand for the yellow metal this Dhanteras.
The online retailers witnessed a spike in the sales of the precious metal riding on offers, discounts and easier digital transactions through debit cards.
Auspicious day
“Dhanteras is one of the most auspicious days for gold and jewellery buying in India. This year is no different, the market has shown a rise of about 7-10 per cent from last year,” said Saurabh Gadgil, Chairman and Managing Director, PNG Jewellers, and National Director, Indian Bullion and Jewellery Association (IBJA).
“Buyers are not just looking for discounts this festive season, but are also evaluating the total value composition keeping in mind the making charges, certification, product quality, designs, brand legacy, goodwill, after-sales service and overall buying experience,” he added.
Dhanteras is considered an auspicious day for buying gold and silver jewellery and coins and people visited online portals such as Paytm, PhonePe, Mobikwik and Amazon in large numbers to keep the tradition going.
Flipkart-owned digital payment platform PhonePe says it witnessed 400 per cent growth in the ticket size of gold purchased on the app during Dhanteras, on November 5. It also saw a 200 per cent jump in sales, with customers buying from over 40 per cent pincodes.
Karthik Raghupathy, Head of Strategy and Planning, PhonePe, said: “We saw an overwhelming response during the recent Dhanteras with over 3.5 million users exploring the category.”
Leading mobile wallet Paytm, which has not shared its post sales numbers, said that it expects five-fold growth in gold sales as customers chose to save in Paytm Gold, where they need not buy and store any physical gold but can save it online. The company was offering ₹10 crore worth prizes and free gold upon purchase of Paytm Gold, besides a lucky draw for extra gold.
Another leading player, Mobikwik, also launched the digital gold category this year and expects a decent volume. The company was offering ₹1,000 off on purchase of digital gold.
According to e-payments transactional service provider Worldline, gold jewellery has shown the highest card transaction growth, of 52 per cent, over the last year — meaning more and more people are swiping their cards to buy gold.
“… growth of digital payments is not concentrated in a few categories. Card transactions in categories such as jewellery, appliances and liquor have all been above 50 per cent, indicating a widespread rally of non-cash methods of payment,” said Deepak Chandnani, Managing Director, Worldline South Asia & Middle East and MRL Posnet.
Nitin Misra, Senior Vice-President at Paytm, said that the company has registered a ten-fold jump in orders and expects the gold shopping fervour to continue even after Diwali. He added that the number of Paytm Gold buyers has also grown to 10 million, indicating a larger shift in consumer behaviour towards instant and paperless gold saving methods.
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