Impact of COVID-19 on jewellery business

The coronavirus pandemic took the world by storm in the year of 2020. Countries throughout the world were severely affected and governments were forced to impose lockdown in order to curb the spread of the virus. Social gatherings were prohibited and public places such as parks and malls were shut down indefinitely. People were forced to stay inside their homes and interaction with people from outside was limited.

As a result of these stringent but necessary rules, life as we know it completely changed. People became distant and hardly ventured out of their houses for shopping or socializing. It had severe repercussions on the mental health of people and the companies and business had to face huge losses. The jewelry industry was no different.

It was estimated that the jewelry and gems industry would reach new heights in the year of 2020. But no one had predicted the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The jewellery industry experienced a major shock when the retailers all over the world had to shut down their stores overnight. The jewellery industry is a huge one and one of the most interesting facts about it is that it is majorly run by labourers such as artisans, craftsmen and people who work at the mines. Since the fear of catching the virus caused several labourers to retreat to their native places, the jewellery industry suffered a major loss of workforce resulting in huge losses.

The jewellery industry is heavily dependent on the export sector for the transportation of materials and finished goods worldwide. As the export also reduced, the manufacturers of jewellery and gems were left with surplus commodity and did not know what to do with them. Most government measures were of no help and with weddings banned and cancelled, the sales of jewellery and gems dipped down drastically. Like many other industries, the coronavirus pandemic crippled the jewellery industry as well.

One year hence, the jewellery and gem industry is still reeling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As the world is slowly bouncing back to normalcy, the jewellery sector is also trying to stand up on its two feet once again. The vaccines have been rolled out and administered to a large number of people and this has encouraged the governments to ease the lockdown. People have started resuming their social activities and weddings are taking place like before but with caution. But in spite of all this, the sales of jewellery and other precious metals and stones have not shown any significant growth.

However, digitisation of sales seems like a silver lining not just for the jewellery industry but most other industries and businesses in general. It holds a lot of promise for the jewellery industry because the maximum amount of sales are being concentrated on this platform. People seem to have become more tech savvy and more open to adopting the online shopping modes. With affordable smartphones you’re just a click away from buying something online.

To survive in the highly competitive jewellery market, the jewellery businesses will have to redevelop their strategies to suit the online shopping trends. The advantage of digitization is that it is global which gives you the opportunity to reach out to people all over the world. The jewellery industry will have to enhance their advertising via jewellery magazine and endorsements to gain more visibility. They need to rethink and work on ways to gain the trust of the customers who should be able to buy a precious stone jewellery online and be rest assured that an authentic and quality product will be delivered to them. Only then the jewellery industry will be able to enjoy the same grandeur as they did before the pandemic hit.