New Delhi: Titan eyecare’s CEO Saumen Bhaumik has been appointed as CaratLane’s new Managing Director. Bhaumik’s appointment comes after last year Titan acquired the remaining stake in CaratLane, valuing the firm at Rs 17,000 crore. Following the deal, CaratLane founder Mithun Sacheti made an exit from the business, selling 27.18 his per cent stake in the company. Avnish Anand, COO, CaratLane, who served as the CEO of the startup after Sacheti’s exit resigned from the company this year in August.
In his first interview as the MD of CaratLane, Bhaumik shared his comments on expansion plans for CaratLane, omnichannel strategy, festive season demand, upcoming Bluestone IPO, and CaratLane’s silver jewellery arm – Shaya.
Edited excerpts below:You have been a part of the Tata Group. From the outside how did you look at CaratLane? And now from the inside?
I’ve been long enough in Titan and in the group to see many things happen. I know Mithun personally and it has been an amazing journey for CaratLane – the first digital jeweller in India. CaratLane’s innovation and beautiful designs at a very affordable price along with its seamless omnichannel experience – these two distinctions are the reason why Indian customers love CaratLane.
What does expansion mean for CaratLane today?
We have expanded our footprint in the last 2-3 years. We are present in almost 119 cities and recently opened our 300th store, which is a milestone for us. We are also opening our first international store in New Jersey and plan to have 2 stores in the US and 2 stores in the GCC to experiment with our presence on the shores beyond India.
Going forward, it is going to be calibrated expansion. We will reach out to customers in the most viable way and at the same time, make sure of design and affordability. While 70 per cent of the customers are coming through the funnel of online. 90 per cent of our sales are from the physical store while 10 per cent is online.
Competition is catching up in the jewellery startup space. A major player, Bluestone has an IPO in the pipeline next year.
Competition is good, it makes everybody better and the customer gets a better deal. The industry is more than crore 5 lakh crore and nobody holds a double-digit share. So, I think for me to win, no one has to lose and for someone else to win, I don’t have to lose.
What are your plans for Shaya – CaratLane’s silver jewellery brand?
Customers have loved our Shaya jewellery and getting that strong design equity is the most difficult part. We believe there is a good space available for us. But we haven’t done enough. So, now, we have created the space, resources, structure and also funds that are required to scale Shaya.
What are your expectations from the festive season?
CaratLane is known for its designs, so, over 400 new designs have hit the market from the first day of Navratri along with a very powerful offer. On sentiment, while we haven’t seen a major rush, from last weekend, we are seeing a clear uptick and we are hoping that this trend will continue till Diwali.
There is a gold rush that we haven’t seen because the gold rate has been climbing. But, we are predominantly a diamond player. There has been some correction in the diamond price, but more on the solitaire side. For smaller stones, of which most of the jewellery is made, there is marginal variation and slight drop in layouts.
