CaratLane first started 15 years ago as an online business to sell solitaires. 2008 was a time before Amazon set up in India. Flipkart, too, had only just started their business in India and here, Mithun Sacheti and Srinivasa Gopalan, the co-founders, aimed to sell solitaires online.
“While the founders had a compelling proposition in terms of price and positioning,” Atul Sinha, COO of CaratLane, tells us, “selling solitaires was limiting their opportunity in the market.” When it comes to jewels, the real differentiation comes with jewellery design, or else, solitaires backed by the same certifications and features become indistinguishable from one another and end up competing for price. A post shared by CaratLane Jewellery (@caratlane) About a year or two later, the brand got into jewellery.
They saw an opportunity in the market, marked by the changing lifestyles of Indian consumers. New-age, modern brands were stepping into the country and influencing people’s fashion, food and lifestyle choices. But in jewellery, most brands available in the market still focus on gold and more traditional designs.
Taking A Digital-First Business Offline Their niche was diamond jewellery with modern designs and they saw massive potential. Consumers when making sentimental and big purchase decisions look to brands they trust. And building that trust was a hurdle for a new-age, digital-only brand.
“Early adopters of digital mediums would come to the website and browse designs. Som.