The Jewellery Store brings unique service to UAE's jewellers

The Jewellery Store dmcc claims a unique offering, in that it uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to identify and track individual articles of jewellery before they are sold. Retailers will be able to quickly and easily carry out stock checks using handheld scanners. With greater accountability for stock, The Jewellery Store dmcc and its wholesaler customers will be able to offer enhanced finance and more cost effective insurance solutions to retail partners.

"The Jewellery Store dmcc is introducing an innovative new solution which offers a host of benefits to the jewellery retail industry worldwide," said Gabriel Nasser, I.T. Director of The Jewellery Store. "By providing retailers with the means to track their stocks much more efficiently than they could before, retailers will have a much better idea of what stock they have, and they will be able to detect theft much sooner. By linking a retail system back to The Jewellery Store dmcc and the wholesalers, both parties will be able to track the items placed at each retailer."

The Jewellery Store dmcc offering will be available in different packages. For the retailer, the solution can be deployed in-store and used purely to track inventory. Jewellery items are tagged with discrete, tamper-evident RFID tags with unique identification numbers that link to the full details of the item. The retailer then only needs to scan the items with a small reader, and the details will be transmitted to the management application, which runs on a standard PC in the retail outlet.

At present this compares to physically handled stock checks that take hours to perform and can only be performed infrequently With The Jewellery Store dmcc's application, a check takes minutes, reducing inventory errors, improving stock visibility, and giving the retailer a clearer view of turnover.

For the complete service, The Jewellery Store dmcc will act as a central hub between the retailer's systems and the wholesalers, giving the wholesaler real-time reports into the stock held by each of its retailers. Typically jewellery retailers in Dubai today source products on an unfixed basis with the contract price only set when the jewellery is sold, creating a "paper" exposure to the international price of gold. The Jewellery Store dmcc, with its innovative supply methodology, will eliminate this risk and the need to meet cash margin calls.

The Jewellery Store dmcc has been formed by four partners: Damas Jewellery LLC; Deepu Jewellers LLC, Yusuf Nonoo Jewellery and Standard Bank Plc, who are all major participants in the region's jewellery industry. "The Jewellery Store is not simply a technology solution, but an innovative financial solution which is underpinned by advanced technology and backed by Lloyds of London insurers," said Jeffrey Rhodes, General Manager of Standard Bank's Representative Office in Dubai.

"The company has unparalleled knowledge and understanding of all aspects of Dubai's gold and jewellery markets enabling it to address the needs of the industry and allowing us to provide exciting new methods of finance for our wholesale and retail customers," added Rhodes.

"Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre is delighted to be able to support The Jewellery Store in the launch of this exciting and inventive new service. With over 90% of the U.A.E. jewellery market made up of precious metal-only items, their solution promises to bring a new level of efficiency, transparency and responsibility to the industry, and represents another step towards making the U.A.E. a global leader in the jewellery business," said Colin Griffith, Executive Director - Gold, of the DMCC.