Surat: The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) has decided to provide an e-commerce platform to the stressed diamond industry, especially the small and medium units, for online sales and marketing of products using social media and help them reach out to the customers across India and around the globe.
SGCCI’s gems and jewellery committee plans to raise funds from the diamond miners, Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), Surat Diamond Association (SDA) and other stakeholders for marketing the diamonds on the social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Whatspp and Twitter.
Co-chairman of gems and jewellery committee of SGCCI, Rakesh Gandhi told TOI, “Barring a few big diamond companies selling on online platforms, the small and medium diamantaires are dependent on Mumbai for selling their products. We want to provide an e-commerce platform to these small diamantaires for selling directly to the customers across the world.”
Under this initiative, SGCCI will allow diamantaires to create a virtual catalogue of their products and also help them expand and manage their business wherever they need support.
Gandhi added, “Due to travel restrictions in place, international customers are not going to come to India. Even the diamantaires won’t be able to travel frequently to foreign countries for marketing. However, social media marketing and e-commerce will help the diamantaires tide over the crisis.”
SGGCI is known among India’s jewellery retail industry due to annual gems and jewellery event ‘Sparkle’ being organised from the last 12 years.
Diamond industry analyst, Aniruddha Lidbide told TOI, “It is time for the diamantaires to reach out directly to the customers. The pandemic is not going to be over soon and international buyers will continue to avoid travelling to India to purchase diamonds. An e-commerce platform will go a long way in helping the diamond industry.”
According to Dinesh Navadiya, interim president of SGCCI more than 5,000 diamantaires and 5 lakh workers have been affected due to the pandemic and weak demand for diamond in the international market.
