The Big fat Indian wedding market : Rs.1 lakh crore business opportunity

( A shorter version of this article has appeared in the March issue of ART OF JEWELLERY magazine)

In the month of November 2016, immediately after demonetisation there was a sense of doom and gloom in India’s jewellery retail trade. However, within two months the confidence levels in the jewellery industry have gone up. One of the most important reasons for the improved sentiment is the pick-up in sales during the wedding season.

At present India has a population of around 1.25 billion. There are around 250million families in India and an average family has five members. With about one marriage per family every 20 years, the country averages roughly 10 million marriages every year. An average 30 to 40 grams of gold is bought in every marriage across the country, thus the total consumption of gold is between 300 to 400 tonnes annually.

Currently, the wedding industry is estimated over Rs 110,000 crore and is growing at 25-30% annually. On an average an Indian spends between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5 crore for a wedding. It amounts to almost a fifth of the accumulated wealth.

With half of India's population being millennials, the marriage market is set to boom over the next five to ten years.

Some of the ancillary markets and segments benefiting from this boom are Gold and diamond jewellery, apparel, decoration, makeup etc. Wedding planners and event management companies have also benefitted from this industry.

The big fat Indian weddings are just getting bigger and fatter. While many Bollywood movies still struggle to make an entry into the 100 crore club, many big and affluent celebrities join that easily by extravagant spends at most lavish weddings.

The most conspicuous and controversial marriage immediately after demonetisation was when Brahmani the daughter of BJP politician and mining baron G. Janardhan Reddy got married to 25-year-old Rajiv Reddy, son of Hyderabad-based businessman Vikram Deva Reddy.

If media reports are to be believed a staggering amount of Rs.550 crores was spent on this wedding.

For her engagement Brahmani donned a rich gold muted Kanjeevaram saree accessorized with a diamond necklace, kamarpatta, maang tika, bangles,and jhumkas rumoured to have cost around Rs. 70 crores.

For the Sangeet, she wore a golden embellished Neeta Lulla lehenga inspired by the Vrindavan Gardens with an opulent diamond choker necklace.

At her wedding, Brahmani dazzled in a red Kanjeevaram half-saree that reportedly cost Rs 17 crore. She skipped the gold accessories, a staple in South Indian weddings and replaced them by a whopping Rs 90-crore glittering diamond jewelry that included an intricate headgear with several strands of diamonds from the maang tikka down to her plait, and spread over her entire head. She wore an elaborate waistband, a bajuband, and a blinding diamond necklace that spanned into several layers.

Wedding ceremonies are the occasions for the rich and famous to network and show off their wealth. Destination wedding is an ideal platform to do so.

Weddings in Goa and Bangkok are now passé. Industrialists like Sajjan Jindal are choosing exotic and novel locations such as Vienna.

His Son Parth tied the knot with Anushree Jasani . The three-day wedding celebrations took place at marquee venues in the Austrian capital such as Hofburg Palace, Art for Art, Palais Liechtenstein and the Belvedere Gardens.

Guests at the festivities included Lakshmi Mittal, Uday Kotak, Natasha Poonawalla, Nita Ambani and Akash Ambani.

In recent years, Indian weddings are becoming more modern and are slowly moving away from traditional themes.

Some of the trends are:

1. High degree of personalization - The hosts are inviting lesser guests but are spending more on them. They also try to integrate their love stories and interests in the decor, food and themes.

2. Brides now prefer to wear gowns instead of a traditional saree to their receptions.

3. People became more & more fashion inclined, lot of experimentation and drama.

4. Statement jewellery piece - Chand ballis, Maang tikkas are in vogue. Brides can team them up with sarees as well as salwar kameez. Matte finish jewellery has seen a rise in demand. Necklaces which are heavy on gem stones are still constant favourites amongst wedding consumers.

5. India has also started adopting a few western traditions, namely bachelor / bachelorette parties, the idea of bridesmaids, and grand wedding cakes!

6. Grooms these days are wearing Jodhpuri Sherwanis that are different from the traditional ones as most of them are handmade & have light colors instead of the traditional red ones.

To cash on the business opportunity, Conde Nast created the Vogue Wedding Show in 2013. It is a curated shopping exhibition for all brides and grooms. The by invitation show will be held in Delhi at the Taj Palace from August 4th to August 6th 2017.

In the 4th edition Jewellers such as Amrapali,Anjali Bhimrajka, Raj Mahtani couture jewellers, Hazoorilal Diacolor and Khanna jewllers participated.

The show also gets participation from India’s leading fashion designers such as Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Tarun Tahiliani and Manish Malhotra.

Indian weddings are all about dressing up. Jewellery and clothes complement each other. The consumers get to buy designer wear and jewellery under the same roof resulting in brisk business.