Interdisciplinary Study on Evolving Gold Jewellery Market

Abstract

The interdisciplinary capstone project explores whether Generation Z consumers in urban India still hold gold and diamond jewellery as a financial investment tool or whether changing lifestyle priorities and diversifying financial options are shifting their focus. The research design is mixed-method research, which implies that it uses a quantitative survey, with Google Forms, and the results of the survey are not to be analyzed thoroughly. The secondary literature covering the consumer behaviour literature, gold investment literature, and reports on the market of the demi-fine jewellery also contextualises the primary findings. The emergence of high making charges, low resale value, and low liquidity comes out as the major disincentives to investment-oriented gold jewellery purchases. At the same time, the increased recognition of mutual funds, digital gold, SIPs, and Gold ETFs is providing younger consumers with alternatives that are more financially transparent. The paper has concluded that the Indian jewellery market is moving towards a two-tier structure with investment and lifestyle reasons existing among various cohorts of consumers and suggests that the traditional jewellers need to adjust by employing transparent pricing, light designs and increased internet presence to be competitive.