Gems and Jewellery industry is one of the highly fragmented industries and is characterized by a family owned business. In the current scenario, the rules of operations in SMBs are changing. I had several discussions with Gems and Jewellery owners working in different segments of jewellery wherein various myths were discovered out of which the top five as mentioned below.

Myth 1 - Software products prevailing in the market for jewellery industry do not meet the requirements and are complicated!!!

First generation owners are unaware of how modern technology can help them and are still interested in their traditional method of conducting businesses. Some SMB jewellery owners feel the products are very complicated and they need to hire a professional for using it. In reality, software products are designed by companies after years of R&D on specific industry to meet their requirements and serve the needs of that industry; they also make sure that products are designed in such a way that implementation of software in day-to-day business makes functioning easy by reducing repetitive steps thus enhancing the productivity.

Myth 2 -Software Solutions are cost effective than software products and are easy to customize for future business needs!!!

I have noticed that jewellery business owners are more likely to adopt a custom made solution. These jewellery shop owners are unaware of the fact that customized solution is expensive when compared to a product since the solution is developed only for individual needs which makes it costly. It is important to note that products are also flexible and can be customized to some extent to suit the business needs. In case if major changes are observed in the process, they will release new versions of software which can be implemented with a small update to the existing software.

Myth 3 – Customized solution is more reliable, secured, maintenance free and 24 hour support is available!!!

As we all know Jewellery Industry is a very sensitive market and everyone has their own way of doing things, it maybe maintaining stock, maintaining design patterns etc., Jewellery owners are in no way interested to reveal their personal methods of doing business, for which they tend to adopt custom software than a product. I noticed that jewellery owners believe that custom solutions are reliable and secured as they can trust on solution completely. In reality, these myths are not true, as products are also reliable and secured since they are developed by top IT product companies which are having a reputation over the decades these companies strive to make a product reliable and secured.

Myth 4 – Software product is not required in Gems & Jewellery industry!!!

It is believed by Gems & Jewellery business owners that only solution can serve the business need to run a small business as products doesn’t suit their requirement or it is expensive. I found that many Gems & Jewellery business owners tend to buy custom software only because they have a small business setup; they require nothing more than basic accounting and stock management. In larger prospective it is always better to consider the future as business always has expansion opportunities, therefore software should be chosen such a way that it should also support for future operational level.

Myth 5 – Customized solution is easy to use and has better user interface!!!

Every user looks for a better and easy interface while interacting with computer, likewise the software used to maintain business should be easy and convenient to use, is an expectation of today’s SMB owners. Jewellery owners have opted for software solutions just because the user interface is good and it is easy to use. Having a better UI is always better, but how far it meets all the requirements is the question, however, for a be-spoke solution, there are no trained experts available but in case of products anyone can get a trained person for maintaining it.