on 17th april 2020 gjepc the gem jewellery export promotion council the reigning council of gems and jewellery industry in india hosted a webinar discussing the postlockdown impact on the jewellery industry the discussion majorly focused on whether the lockdown has posed a limitation on the growth of the jewellery business or has it turned out to be an opportunity to build an exponential organizationmoderated by milan chokshi convener promotions marketing gjepc the session was held in conversation with mithun sacheti ceo of caratlane one of indias largest jewellery companiesthe wonderful and enlightening session began with sachetis personal insight on the postlockdown impact on the jewellery business and how they used this time to connect with their customers and built a meaningful relationship with them he says what you really need to do now is not talk business socialize with everybody who is importantlooking back on the initiatives taken by caratlane themselves he went on to add over the last one week were engaging with our customers on instagram weve had some concerts happening zumba classes and makeup sessions which have nothing to do with jewellery everything to do with engaging with the customers and making them happywebinar by speaker mr mithun sacheti caratlane and moderator mr milan chokshi gjepcin light of the current pandemic sacheti highlighted two of the most important measures with regard to jewellery businesses hygiene and safety no demand destructionaccording to sacheti when our customers look and they see fashion or jewellery luckily there is no travel and all the other categories at this point we must also try and stand out as strong as other categories we have always stood behind we have always waited for demand to come to us we have not gone out there and grabbed demanddelving deeper into the discussion milan chokshi the moderator of the session asked mithun sacheti to describe a modern jeweller and how they are different from a traditional jewellersacheti began with his idea of a traditional jeweller who he said has always waited for the customers to walk in through their doorsteps that they take pride in a wordofmouth businesshowever for him its not the same for a modern jeweller according to him a modern jeweller does not have the luxury to wait for allocated money a reserved amount of money for a particular purchase because the market is much larger now they need to go for the discretionary money available for use at the discretion of the user the kind that can be invested anywhere ie into mobile phones traveling purposes etc depending on aspirations of the customerthe customer doesnt have to think about his time to buy jewellery when he is ready to spend money jewellery as an option will be presented to him like everything else by the modern jeweller he saidadding to the conversation sacheti also talked about innovation as one of the leading and most relevant aspects of the jewellery business he said we have a serious challenge