Jewellery e-tailer Caratlane appoints Calvin John as VP marketing

Chennai-based Caratlane Trading Pvt Ltd, which runs the online diamond and jewellery portal CaratLane.com, has appointed Calvin John as VP – marketing. In his new role, John will be responsible for defining marketing strategy and positioning the portal. He will also oversee the implementation of pan-India marketing campaigns that will drive growth for the brand.

Prior to joining Caratlane, John was working with an e-commerce portal called Men&Boys as VP and marketing head. He had also worked with Tanishq, UB Group, Hindustan Lever and Bisleri.

Commenting on his appointment, John said, "I am very excited to join CaratLane.com as it brings clarity and information-driven empowerment to customers to help them make informed choices. This is crucial for a high-value industry like ours where customers, owing to lack of knowledge, are hesitant to go beyond their trusted family jewellers. The strategy going forward will be to increase the credibility and further establish the identity of CaratLane.com as India's leading online jeweller."

Speaking on the new hire, Mithun Sacheti, founder and CEO of CaratLane.com, said, "Calvin's understanding of the Indian jewellery market, coupled with his experience in setting up the entire e-commerce channel for a leading national brand, gives him an 'intra-preneurial' perspective which is very important for a business model like ours. We are confident that he will take CaratLane.com to newer heights."

CaratLane was set up in 2008 by Srinivasa Gopalan (an IT entrepreneur who was the founder and CEO of Lister Technologies) and Sacheti (of Jaipur Gems, which has stores in Mumbai, Chennai and Coimbatore). It received $6 million from Tiger Global Management last year. At that time, the company said that it was selling 15 solitaires a day on an average and claimed to be growing at a rate of 300 per cent year on year.

Caratlane, an early mover to high-value jewellery e-tailing space, was followed by ventures like BlueStone, which was backed by noted investors K Ganesh and Accel Partners. BlueStone is the direct competitor of Caratlane in this segment apart from the portals of jewellery brands like Tanishq. Online jewellery shopping seems to be catching up and Indian consumers are opening up to the idea of e-shopping expensive items like diamond and gold jewellery.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)