KOCHI: Gold has become so expensive that buying jewellery with fresh money is increasingly difficult for many consumers. Jewellers, however, have found a way to keep them buying — by getting them to bring in the gold they already own.
Old-for-new exchange has become an increasingly important part of jewellery sales, and the shift is now visible in jewellers' advertising as well as their sales numbers.
The World Gold Council (WGC) says exchange accounted for roughly 43–55 per cent of sales at major listed jewellery retailers in the second quarter of 2026, with some retailers reporting figures as high as 70 per cent. Exchange volumes also rose 10–20 per cent, with the WGC attributing part of the increase to aggressive promotion by jewellers.
The reason is simple. A customer who wants 50g of new jewellery does not have to find the entire amount of money needed to buy 50g of gold at today's price. The gold already sitting in the customer's cupboard becomes the starting point for the new purchase.
For the customer, it is an upgrade rather than an entirely fresh gold purchase. For the jeweller, it can turn a customer who might otherwise postpone buying into a new-jewellery sale.
Making charge vanishes?
There is another attraction. The customer is effectively giving up the value of the old jewellery's making charge when it is exchanged; what is principally carried forward is the assessed value of its gold content.
Kalyan Jewellers, for instance, is currently promoting zero-deduction exchange, subject to purity and quality verification, alongside discounts on making charges for the new jewellery. Tanishq too has built a large exchange business around testing the old jewellery and converting its assessed metal value into the new purchase.
The strategy becomes even more relevant when gold imports become costlier. India's gold import duty was raised from 6 per cent to 15 per cent in May, increasing the importance of gold already available within the domestic market.
Whether jewellers make an additional margin on the old-gold leg itself is difficult to establish from public information.The bigger change is in how jewellery is being sold. When gold was affordable, the pitch was: “Come and buy gold.” Now, increasingly, it is: “Bring us the gold you already have — and turn it into something new.”
Old gold is becoming the bridge between record gold prices and continued jewellery sales
