Dubai: The ‘0% making charges’ in UAE’s gold and jewellery sales is becoming too big to miss out on. Some of the biggest jewellers have launched ‘weekend’ sales of their older collections by offering these at no making charges.This way, they are hoping to take on smaller jewelers who have been aggressively promoting the ‘free’ making charge concept in their own promotions. These small jewellery retailers use social media channels such as TikTok to announce they have new collections in stores and for which shoppers need to pay only the actual price of gold.One shopper who went after seeing such a promotion online said the retailer was offering jewellery weighing 5 grams each. “Most of these bangles and necklaces are imports from Turkey,” the shopper said, adding that she made multiple purchases ahead of her travel to India. “It didn’t matter whether this was from an older jewellery collection or not. The price per gram was at Dh326 for 22K, and I wanted to avoid paying for any making charges.”What these deals show is that there are a sizable number of UAE resident shoppers willing to buy more gold even though prices seem stuck at $2,900 plus levels on an ounce basis. Right now, it is trading at $2,912, having gone up by nearly $400 in the last 6 months.This weekend also saw sizable interest from Indian tourists, many of whom were here for the Champions Trophy cricket final against New Zealand. 'It's mostly new'Some of the single store jewellery retailers ‘Gulf News’ spoke to dispute the claim that they are essentially selling older stock at subsidized rates. “It may be the case with the big jewelers, but a majority of what we sell are new collections,” said the owner of one such store. “UAE shoppers, residents and visitors, are worried about high gold prices, but still want to invest or pick up something for weddings or other reasons.“The 0% making charge offers are a way of assuring them that they needn’t worry about spending more than they want to.”Can the 0% making charge offers last?Currently, such sales would make only a small percentage of overall UAE gold and jewellery sales, according to bullion traders. The next question is whether these small jewellery retailers can sustain these offers for long.“Many of them are limiting the promotions to weekend sales, and that makes sense,” said a bullion dealer. “These use whatever platforms are available to get the word out and find shoppers. Once shoppers go to the store, the retailers would hope they would buy jewellery that are not under the ‘zero schemes’.”Watching the actionThe big jewelers in the UAE are closely watching the action unfold, and have come up with their own weekend zero making charge offers. But make a point of adding that these would only be for their older stock.“We realise shoppers are worried about gold prices, but still need to keep adding to their holdings,” said the CEO at one of the bigger brands. “Where possible, we will look at new ways to help them buy gold, but not in a way that will end up harming the business and the overall gold trade in the UAE.”