How to Start a Jewellery Business in India: A Step by Step Guide

India has one of the most active jewellery markets in the world. Domestic consumption runs into lakhs of crores of rupees a year, and the cultural attachment to gold, silver and gemstones is deep enough to survive most price swings. That combination leaves real room for new entrants, whether you are opening a traditional gold showroom in Coimbatore, launching an artificial jewellery brand online, or building a handcrafted artisan label.

This guide covers what it takes to start a jewellery business in India: legally, financially, operationally and digitally.

1. Decide which jewellery business you are actually building

Before you invest a single rupee, decide which segment you are entering. Each one has different investment requirements, licensing obligations, margins and customers.

Gold and diamond jewellery (fine jewellery)

• Investment required: ₹25 lakh to ₹5 crore and above, depending on the city and the inventory you carry
• Margins: roughly 8 to 15 percent on gold, 20 to 35 percent on making charges, higher on diamond
• Key requirement: BIS hallmarking registration, mandatory since June 2021
• Best suited to: entrepreneurs with trade connections, access to capital, or a family background in the business

Silver jewellery

• Investment required: ₹5 lakh to ₹50 lakh
• Margins: roughly 25 to 50 percent on making charges
• Key requirement: hallmarking is not mandatory for silver, but premium buyers increasingly expect it
• Best suited to: mid tier retail, the gifting market, and export oriented businesses

Artificial and imitation jewellery

• Investment required: ₹1 lakh to ₹10 lakh
• Margins: 40 to 150 percent, depending on design and branding
• Key requirement: no hallmarking needed
• Best suited to: fashion led entrepreneurs, online first businesses, and first time business owners in tier 2 and tier 3 cities

Handcrafted and artisan jewellery

• Investment required: ₹50,000 to ₹5 lakh
• Margins: very high, 60 to 200 percent, when the work is positioned as premium rather than cheap
• Best suited to: designers and makers targeting direct to consumer or export buyers

Wholesale and B2B supply

• Investment required: ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore and above
• Best suited to: anyone with manufacturing or sourcing relationships who can supply retailers rather than end customers

2. The legal registrations and licences you need

Getting the paperwork right before you open is not optional in this category, because two of these are enforced with penalties rather than reminders.

Business registration

Choose the structure that fits the scale you are planning for:

• Sole proprietorship: simplest to set up, and the owner carries full liability. Suitable for very small operations
• Partnership firm: for 2 to 20 partners, governed by the Partnership Act
• LLP, or limited liability partnership: the usual answer for a mid sized jewellery business. It gives liability protection with lighter compliance than a private limited company
• Private limited company: the right choice if you plan to raise investment, scale aggressively or franchise

Register with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs at mca.gov.in.

GST registration

GST registration is mandatory once annual turnover crosses ₹40 lakh, and ₹20 lakh in some states. For jewellery:

• Gold and silver jewellery: 3 percent GST
• Imitation jewellery: rates vary by price band, so confirm the current slab for your product before you price it
• Making charges, when invoiced separately: 5 percent GST

Register at gst.gov.in. You will need PAN, Aadhaar, a bank account and proof of your business address. GST rates and slabs are revised from time to time, so check the current notification rather than a blog post, including this one, before you set final prices.

BIS hallmarking registration, mandatory for gold

Since June 2021, hallmarking of gold jewellery is mandatory for 14K, 18K and 22K purity. Every jeweller selling hallmarked jewellery must:

1. Register with the Bureau of Indian Standards at bis.gov.in
2. Pay the registration fee, which varies with the number of outlets
3. Get jewellery assayed and hallmarked at a BIS licensed assaying and hallmarking centre before it is sold

Penalties for selling non hallmarked gold jewellery are serious, and can include a fine running to lakhs of rupees along with imprisonment. Treat this as the one line item you never economise on.

Shops and establishments registration

Register with your local municipal authority or labour department under the Shops and Establishments Act, normally within 30 days of opening. The rules are state specific. In Tamil Nadu, registration is under the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, and fees are modest and scale with employee count.

Trade licence

Obtain a trade licence from your local municipal corporation. It is required to operate any commercial establishment legally.

Import Export Code, if you are exporting

If you plan to export jewellery or import stones and precious metals, register for an IEC at dgft.gov.in.

MSME and Udyam registration

Register as a micro, small or medium enterprise at udyamregistration.gov.in. It is free, and it gives you access to priority bank lending, government schemes and subsidies, and tenders reserved for MSMEs.

3. Investment and capital planning

Minimum viable investment by segment

Type of business	Minimum start	Comfortable start
Home based artificial jewellery	₹50,000	₹2 lakh
Small artificial jewellery retail store	₹3 lakh	₹8 lakh
Silver jewellery retail	₹5 lakh	₹15 lakh
Small gold jewellery showroom	₹25 lakh	₹75 lakh
Mid size gold showroom, tier 2 city	₹75 lakh	₹1.5 crore

What your capital actually covers

• Inventory and stock: 50 to 70 percent of initial capital
• Shop fit out and display: 10 to 20 percent
• Licensing, registration and deposits: 3 to 5 percent
• Working capital, meaning six months of operating expenses: 15 to 20 percent
• Marketing and branding: 5 to 10 percent

Funding options

• Personal savings: where most jewellers start
• Bank loans: a gold loan, an MSME loan or a term loan. Jewellery businesses can often pledge existing stock
• MUDRA loan: under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, up to ₹10 lakh without collateral for micro businesses
• Jewellers association credit: many local associations offer credit facilities to their members

4. Sourcing your jewellery

Your sourcing decisions set your margins and your quality ceiling before you sell a single piece.

Sourcing gold and diamond jewellery

• Direct from manufacturers: Surat for diamonds, along with Rajkot, Thrissur and the other established manufacturing centres. Buying direct improves margins but usually requires large minimum orders
• Local karigar networks: the most effective route for South Indian designs. Coimbatore, Chennai and Thrissur all have strong artisan communities
• Hallmarking centres: never buy unstamped gold for resale. Buy from BIS registered sources only

Sourcing artificial and fashion jewellery

• Wholesale markets: the large metro wholesale jewellery markets remain the cheapest bulk source if you can travel and inspect stock yourself
• Online wholesale: IndiaMART, TradeIndia and the wholesale arms of the marketplaces work for repeat bulk procurement
• Direct from manufacturers: Gujarat produces a large share of India’s imitation jewellery, and buying at source removes a layer of margin

Sourcing handcrafted jewellery

Buy raw materials, meaning silver wire, beads, stones and settings, from established supply hubs or reliable local suppliers. Build relationships with local artisans and pay fair wages, because at this end of the market that relationship becomes the brand story you sell.

5. Setting up your store or workshop

Location strategy

For retail, location decides a large part of the outcome:

• Footfall: high street locations near existing jewellery clusters outperform isolated shops
• Competition: being near other jewellers is not necessarily bad. Clusters such as the shops around NSR Road and Cross Cut Road in Coimbatore attract buyers who intend to compare before buying
• Parking: customers buying fine jewellery arrive by car, and parking access has a measurable effect on how many of them come in
• Security: a ground floor unit with clear visibility is safer, and usually cheaper to insure

Store design and display

• Invest in proper glass showcases and lighting. Warm, focused LED lighting between 3000K and 4000K makes gold and gemstones look considerably better
• Keep the store clean and uncluttered. Overcrowded displays read as low value, whatever the stock is worth
• For artificial jewellery, open display racks encourage browsing and impulse buying
• For fine jewellery, an appointment first private viewing supports premium pricing better than an open floor does

Security and insurance

• Install CCTV covering every angle, with cloud backup so footage survives the theft of the recorder
• Take a business insurance policy that covers theft, fire and transit
• Arrange a night safe or a bank vault for overnight stock storage

6. Starting a jewellery business online

Starting online takes far less capital and can scale quickly, particularly for artificial and handcrafted jewellery.

Build your own website first

Before you list anywhere else, own the customer relationship. A well built jewellery website with real product photography, size guides and a secure checkout builds credibility and keeps the full margin, with no marketplace commission taken out of it.

What a jewellery website needs:

• High quality product images, at least four angles per piece, with zoom
• Material and purity stated on every listing
• A size guide with measuring instructions
• A clear return and exchange policy, which matters more in jewellery than in almost any other category
• A payment gateway Indian buyers recognise
• WhatsApp chat for pre purchase questions, because a large share of jewellery buyers want to ask before they pay

Marketplaces worth listing on

Once your own site is live:

1. Partner programmes run by the large branded chains, for manufacturers supplying fine jewellery
2. The general marketplaces, for artificial and silver jewellery
3. Etsy, for handcrafted, artisan and export oriented pieces
4. Reseller led platforms, for artificial jewellery sold through networks rather than direct
5. Fashion focused marketplaces, for pieces aimed at a specific style buyer

Product photography

Weak photography is the single biggest reason online jewellery businesses stall. Two workable options:

• Do it yourself: a macro lens attachment for your phone, a lightbox in the ₹2,000 to ₹5,000 range, and a plain white background. With practice this is enough for artificial jewellery
• Hire a professional: for gold and diamond pieces, a product photographer is worth the per image cost, because the pieces are expensive enough that a weak image costs you more than the shoot does

7. Pricing your jewellery

Pricing gold and silver

Selling price = (metal rate x weight) + making charges + wastage + GST + margin

• Making charges: typically 8 to 25 percent of the gold value for standard designs, and higher for intricate work
• Wastage: typically 3 to 8 percent charged on gold weight during manufacturing

Pricing artificial jewellery

Selling price = (material cost + labour) x markup multiple

A 3x to 5x markup on material cost is standard for retail, and 1.5x to 2x for wholesale.

Pricing psychology

• Prices ending in ₹99 or ₹999 work well for artificial jewellery under ₹2,000
• For fine jewellery, round numbers such as ₹15,000 or ₹25,000 read as more premium
• Avoid competing on price alone. Differentiate on design, trust and service, because there is always someone willing to go lower

8. Marketing a jewellery business in India

Local SEO and your Google Business Profile

For a physical store, the Google Business Profile is the highest return marketing asset you own. When someone searches for a jewellery shop near them, or for gold jewellery in Coimbatore, the profile is what appears in Maps and in the local pack.

Work on it in this order:

• Complete every field: hours, phone, website, categories and attributes
• Upload real photographs of the store and the stock, and keep adding them
• Ask every satisfied customer for a review, consistently rather than in bursts
• Use Google posts to announce new collections, offers and festival stock

If you want that handled properly, this is exactly what our SEO and local SEO work covers.

Social media

Instagram and Pinterest return the most for jewellery businesses, because the product photographs well and the buying decision is visual.

On Instagram:

• Post product photography in natural light three to four times a week
• Use Reels to show pieces on a model or on hands. Video consistently reaches further than a static image
• Run Stories polls, such as gold against silver, or traditional against contemporary, to keep the account in front of people who already follow it
• Use local tags alongside category tags, so a Coimbatore buyer can find you

On Facebook:

• Local community groups are effective for artificial jewellery
• Target ads to women aged 22 to 50 within roughly 25 km of the store
• Plan festival campaigns properly, because that is when the money moves

Our social media marketing work is built around exactly this kind of seasonal, local buying behaviour.

WhatsApp Business

Set up a WhatsApp Business account and use it as a sales channel rather than a helpdesk:

• Build a catalogue of your 50 best pieces
• Use broadcast lists to announce new arrivals to existing customers
• Set up automated replies with your hours and a simple menu, so an enquiry at 11pm still gets an answer

Festival and wedding season planning

Jewellery sales in India are strongly seasonal. Plan inventory and marketing around:

• Akshaya Tritiya, in April or May: the single biggest gold buying occasion of the year
• Navratri and Dussehra, in October: a strong season for fashion and artificial jewellery
• Diwali, in October or November: gifting peaks, and silver coins and gift sets sell well
• Wedding season, roughly November to February and May to July: bridal jewellery, and the highest average ticket size of the year
• Pongal, in January: a Tamil Nadu specific gold buying occasion

Influencer marketing

Work with local fashion and lifestyle micro influencers, in the 5,000 to 50,000 follower range, in your own city. For artificial jewellery this is often more cost effective than paid ads, and product in exchange for posts and Reels is a normal arrangement at that size.

9. Mistakes that cost new jewellers the most

Overstocking at launch. Start lean. Capital locked in stock is capital you do not have for marketing, rent and salaries.

Skipping hallmarking. Selling non hallmarked gold after June 2021 is an offence, not a technicality. There is no version of this that is worth the risk.

No return policy. An unclear exchange and return policy is the largest single trust barrier for online jewellery buyers.

Ignoring the digital shopfront. A jewellery business with no Google Business Profile, no Instagram presence and no website is effectively invisible to most buyers under 40.

Under investing in photography. This is where budget cuts do the most damage, because the photograph is the product until the buyer is holding it.

Competing on price alone. Jewellery buyers read low prices as low quality. Compete on design, trust and service instead.

10. Getting a Coimbatore jewellery business online

Coimbatore has a long jewellery trade, from the established gold showrooms to the newer designers and artificial jewellery brands coming out of the city. The market is competitive in the shops and comparatively open online, which is where the opportunity sits.

If you are launching or growing a jewellery business here and want help with the digital side, these are the pieces that usually matter first:

• A jewellery website with a proper product catalogue
• Social media management for Instagram and Facebook
• Google Ads for local visibility during buying seasons
• Local SEO so you appear when someone searches for a jeweller near them

Talk to us and we will tell you which of those your business actually needs first, and which can wait.

Frequently asked questions

How much money do I need to start a jewellery business in India?

You can start a home based artificial jewellery business with ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh. A physical gold jewellery showroom in a tier 2 city typically needs ₹25 lakh at minimum, with around ₹75 lakh being a more comfortable starting point.

Is hallmarking mandatory for all jewellery in India?

BIS hallmarking is mandatory for gold jewellery at 14K, 18K and 22K purity sold by registered jewellers, and has been since June 2021. It is not currently mandatory for silver or for imitation jewellery.

Can I sell jewellery online in India without a shop?

Yes. Many jewellery brands in India operate entirely online. You will need GST registration, a business bank account and packaging that survives courier handling. No physical shop is required for an online only operation.

What is the GST rate on jewellery in India?

Gold and silver jewellery are taxed at 3 percent GST, and imitation jewellery falls in a different slab that has been revised more than once. Confirm the current rate on the GST portal before you finalise pricing.

How do I source gold for my jewellery business?

Buy from BIS registered bullion dealers or from banks. Alternatively, work with hallmarking centres that can certify pieces made by your own karigars. Do not buy gold from unregistered sources at any price.

Is a jewellery business profitable in India?

It can be. Fine jewellery margins typically land between 15 and 25 percent after all costs, while artificial and fashion jewellery can reach 40 to 150 percent gross margin when the brand supports the price. Both depend on inventory discipline and on not competing purely on rate.