Price Breakup Availability in Top 50 Precious Jewellery Websites in India

Price breakup availability in top 50 precious jewellery websites in India, Oct 2023

It is a general practice for precious jewellery retailers in India to sell gold and diamond jewellery with a detailed price break-up in terms of the cost of gold, diamonds, gemstones, making charges, and taxes. In contrast, in the United States and many European countries, precious jewellery is commonly sold at MRP (Maximum Retail Price) or at a fixed price. They just provide details of the jewellery such as gold purity, gold weight, diamond quality, diamond carat, etc.

The above list was prepared to examine the pricing practices among the top 50 most popular precious jewellery websites in India. Surprisingly, 8 out of the top 50 websites don’t display any price breakup of jewellery on their websites.

It is commonly argued that Indian consumers buy precious jewellery for its investment value, while consumers in Western countries buy precious jewellery as a fashion accessory and a form of self-expression.

Questions to ponder:

How are some jewellers in India able to sell precious jewellery without providing a price breakup?
How is the same consumer willingly buying silver jewellery (even expensive ones priced at Rs. 50,000 and above) on MRP or at a fixed price?
How are online marketplaces in India able to sell precious jewellery without giving a price breakup?
How is CaratLane able to sell jewellery priced below Rs. 10,000 without providing a price breakup on their website?
Let us take an example of diamond jewellery priced at Rs. 50,000, where gold value is say 30%, diamond value is 50%, making charges is 17%. Does the price breakup really help the consumer understand the true value of the product? Does it truly reflect the intrinsic value of the raw materials used in the product? Does the consumer know the difference between the actual cost price of the diamond and the price of the diamond charged by the jeweller (like in the case of gold rate)?

Reference Notes:

Price break-up information is provided based on information available in the respective company websites (as of Oct 2023)
Jewellery price break-up is defined as the break-up of MRP in terms of gold, diamond, making charges, and taxes
“No” indicates no jewellery price break-up given in the website
“NA” indicates no jewellery price displayed in the website
Popularity of websites is based on total website visits in the month of May 2023 as per Similarweb.com
This is a dynamic list, and the rank keeps changing basis change in website visits each month
Only precious jewellery websites in India are considered. Precious jewellery for this study is defined as gold and diamond jewellery
This is an indicative list and not an exhaustive list of all precious jewellery retailers in India
National Jeweller is defined as a jewellery retailer with store presence across India
Regional Jeweller is defined as a jewellery retailer with 10+ stores in multiple cities or states in India
Medium-sized Jeweller is defined as a jewellery retailer with more than one store but fewer than 10 stores and presence in one or multiple cities in India
Digital-first Jeweller is defined as an online-first jewellery retailer that later expanded into physical stores in India
Standalone Jewellers with single store are not considered in the scope of this study