Jewellery websites in India: gold rates, HUID and try-on

The short answer

Indian jewellery buyers do their homework. They check the day's gold rate, compare making charges between stores, and ask about hallmarking before they ever visit. A jewellery website that shows a single unexplained price loses them at the first question.

The sites that earn trust do three things well: they break every price into gold, stones, making charge and GST; they show hallmark and certificate details for each piece; and they make it easy to move from browsing online to trying the piece on — on camera, at home or in the store.

Price transparency is the whole game

Gold prices change daily, sometimes more often. Your site's prices need to follow the rate automatically, and the customer should see why a piece costs what it does.

[Karatly](/work/karatly) shows this breakdown live on every product page.
Price line	What to show	Why buyers care
Gold value	Net weight × purity × today's rate	They compare it with the rate they saw in the news
Stones	Diamond or gemstone value, with grading	Stones are where markups hide
Making charge	As a percentage or per gram, stated plainly	The number they negotiate in stores
GST	Shown as its own line	Avoids a surprise at checkout
Total	Updated when the rate changes	One honest final number

Behind this sits a rate feed and a pricing engine. Decide who updates the rate — an automatic feed, or a staff member each morning — and what happens to items in a customer's cart when it moves.

Silver, platinum and diamond-only pieces need their own rules. Silver moves with its own rate; diamond pieces depend mostly on stone value, so the gold line is small. Build the pricing engine so each category can use a different formula, and show the customer the same breakdown style everywhere, so comparisons stay easy.

Rounding matters too. Decide whether prices round to the nearest rupee or ten rupees, and apply it after tax, so the website, the invoice and the store bill always show the same final number.

Hallmarking, HUID and certificates

BIS hallmarking with a HUID (Hallmark Unique Identification) number is a requirement for gold jewellery sold in India, and buyers increasingly know to ask for it. Your website should make it visible, not bury it.

Show purity (for example 22K or 18K) and the HUID on each product page, or explain that each piece's HUID is shared at purchase.
Show diamond certificates and grading where they exist, with the lab name and report number.
Explain your exchange and buy-back policy in plain language, with the deductions stated.
Keep hallmark and certificate records in your back office, linked to each item's stock record.

Hallmarking rules cover specific purities, items and exemptions, and they are updated from time to time. Confirm the current requirements for your products with BIS guidance or your compliance adviser.

Bridging online and the store

Very few people buy an expensive necklace without seeing it. Your site's job is often to get a confident visit or a home trial booked.

AR try-on for rings, earrings and pendants, so people can see scale on their own hand or face.
Book a store visit with the pieces already set aside, so the visit starts with what they liked online.
Try at home for higher-value pieces, with a scheduled appointment and an associate who brings a curated tray.
WhatsApp enquiry on every product, because many buyers want to ask a person before they commit. See WhatsApp for business apps.
Custom orders and engraving with clear lead times.

Karatly includes a boutique storefront with try-on, a concierge app for home trials, and an atelier back office for hallmark records and custom orders.

Seasons, gifting and repeat buyers

Jewellery demand in India peaks around weddings and festivals like Dhanteras and Akshaya Tritiya. Plan the site for those peaks.

Collections and landing pages you can launch quickly for each season.
Gold savings schemes or monthly instalment plans, if you offer them, with a clear dashboard for customers.
Wishlists that family members can share before a wedding.
Gift wrapping, insured shipping and delivery tracking for gifts sent to another city.

If wedding buyers are a large part of your business, our event and wedding app guide covers how families plan purchases together.

The back office behind the storefront

A jewellery website is only as accurate as the stock and rate data behind it. Most problems customers notice — a piece shown online that sold in the store yesterday, a price that did not move with the rate — start in the back office.

One stock record per piece, with weight, purity, stones, making charge, hallmark details, photos and which store holds it.
Shared stock across store and website, so a piece sold at the counter disappears online within minutes, not at the end of the day.
Rate management with a clear owner, a log of every change and a rule for what happens to carts and open orders when the rate moves.
Custom orders tracked from design approval to the bench to quality check, with dates the customer can see.
Exchange and buy-back records, so old gold coming in is weighed, tested and valued the same way every time.
Roles and permissions, because a staff member who can change a making charge can change your margins.

Karatly has an atelier view for exactly this: hallmark records, vault inventory and the custom-order bench, separate from the storefront.

Mistakes to avoid

A single total price with no breakdown. It invites suspicion and pushes every buyer to WhatsApp to ask.
Stock photos from a supplier catalogue. Buyers notice, and it undermines the trust a jeweller depends on.
Rates that update once a week. If your website's gold rate is behind the news, buyers assume the rest is too.
A checkout that treats a ₹2 lakh order like a ₹2,000 one. Offer a call-back, a store visit or a home trial at the point of hesitation.
Hiding the exchange policy. Many Indian buyers exchange old jewellery when they buy new. Make the rules clear upfront.

Each of these is cheaper to get right at the start than to fix after launch. If you are weighing a template store against a custom build, read website, app or both first.

Photography, speed and trust signals

Jewellery is sold on photographs. It is also sold on phones over mobile data, which means heavy photos can kill the page.

Shoot on a consistent background, with scale shots on a hand or neck.
Serve images in modern formats at the right size for each screen. A product page should load quickly on a mid-range Android phone.
Show your store addresses, years of operation (only if true), BIS hallmarking and your return and exchange policy near the price.
Keep checkout short, with UPI, cards and EMI options where you offer them. High-value payments may need extra verification; design for it rather than letting it look like an error.

For local discovery — people searching for jewellers near them — read local SEO for Indian businesses.

What a first version includes

Storefront with live rate-based pricing and a full price breakdown.
Product pages with purity, hallmark, certificate details, AR try-on and WhatsApp enquiry.
Store-visit and home-trial booking.
Back office for stock, rate updates, hallmark records and orders.

That is typically a 6–10 week build. See our jewellery website solution for the full scope, and how much a website costs in India for what moves the number.

Questions people ask

Can a jewellery website update prices with the gold rate automatically?

Yes. Each product stores its net weight, purity, stone value and making charge, and the site recalculates the price whenever the gold rate changes, either from an automatic feed or a rate your staff set each morning. Decide upfront how carts and pending orders behave when the rate moves.

Should we show the making charge on the website?

We recommend it. Buyers compare making charges between jewellers, and an unexplained total makes them suspicious. Showing gold value, stones, making charge and GST as separate lines builds trust and reduces the back-and-forth on WhatsApp and in the store. It also shortens the conversation once they visit.

Does AR try-on really work for jewellery?

It works well for rings, earrings and pendants, where scale is the main question. It is a way to build confidence and book a visit, not a perfect replacement for trying the piece on. Good product photography with scale shots matters just as much.

Do we need to show HUID numbers online?

Showing purity and explaining hallmarking clearly builds trust. Some jewellers show each piece's HUID on the product page; others share it on the invoice. Either way, keep hallmark records linked to each stock item in your back office, so staff can answer questions quickly, and confirm current rules with your compliance adviser.