Traditionally, Indians love to buy gold in the form of Jewellery.
Not just women but also men wear them as ornaments on their body. It is a
custom to adorn women during marriage with Gold Jewellery. The bride carries
the gold along with her and that gets passed to the next generation for a
similar purpose. The quest for gold had never ceased to excite people in India.
No wonder, India is the largest importer of Gold in the world !
For all practical purposes, people purchase gold from neighborhood
Jewellery shops in the form of ornaments or pure gold as bars and coins. This
involves multiple visits to different shops and cost comparisons (making
charges, wastage charges, stone charges, taxes etc) across all these shops. In
modern days, gold is purchased not just for ornaments, but also from an
investment perspective and to hedge against inflation. This led to purchase of
pure gold in the form of bars and coins from even banks and post offices. With
increase in demand, finance gurus have come-up with innovative products around
gold - like e-Gold and Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
Interestingly, gold can be purchased in different formats from
different online sources - thanks to technology !
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Gold and Diamond Jewellery
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Yes, Jewellery can be bought online. There are online stores like Bluestone and CaratLane,
which offer extensive collection of earrings, bracelets, rings and pendants.
With wide range of collection and better pricing options, people are not
hesitating to buy online from these e-stores. Branded Jewellery stores like Tanishq also provide online buying options.
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Bars and Coins
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If one is interested to buy gold for future use or hedge against
inflation, then one would select this option. One can buy such gold bars or
coins from traditional Jewellery stores. But they can also be purchased
online from banks like ICICI these days.
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e-Gold
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If you are concerned about keeping the pure gold safe once you buy
the same, you can even buy it online and keep it safe with a custodian. National
Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) offers the facility to not only buy the gold
online but also keep it in the demat format, unless we need delivery.
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Exchange Traded Funds (ETF)
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If one is looking at gold as a pure investment option, buying it
in paper format is not a bad idea at all. In case of Gold ETFs, a fund house
purchases gold on behalf of investors money and makes it available for trade
on exchange. National Stock Exchange (NSE)
provides such a facility for investors and traders in Gold.
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Gold Futures
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If one is interested in hedging their investments against
inflation, he or she can purchase gold in the Futures Market online. MCX exchange provides a platform to trade in
such gold futures.
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With standards and transparency available in different channels,
purchasing gold online is becoming a genuine option for customers. Once the
trust is established, online Jewellery stores must be laughing all the way to
the bank. Retailers must be happy to get a good bargain - be it Akshaya Tritiya
or Marriage !
Apparently, if lot of e-commerce customers buy gold online, then the
same customers would not think twice to buy low-priced daily-use commodities
like Vegetables,
Groceries
and Apparel
online. Is it not ?