How Mejuri is hitting a jewellery sweet spot

As former DTC jewellery brand Mejuri opens its first store in Australia, other brands are finding success in approachable fine jewellery.

Noura Sakkijha, co-founder and chief executive of Mejuri.

Noura Sakkijha, co-founder and chief executive of Canadian jewellery brand Mejuri, says Australians have been asking it to open in this market for some time.

“Australia is a key market for us; we’ve seen incredible double-digit growth in sales every year since we launched on e-commerce in 2020,” says the Jordan-born entrepreneur, former engineer and third-generation jeweller.

That the brand, known for its fine and demi-fine pieces, just opened its first Australian store, in Sydney’s The Galeries, speaks to just how much the once direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand has grown. It is its 36th store globally.

Mejuri launched with the idea of challenging mark-ups in fine jewellery and indeed ideas of who buys jewellery anyway (for the Mejuri client it’s mostly women buying for themselves).

That fits with what consultancy firm Bain sees as an opportunity in the jewellery category amid a much reported global slowdown in the luxury sector. Bain noted in its most recent report that right now it is the uber-luxury and entry segments driving growth.

For Sakkijha, opening bricks-and-mortar stores for Mejuri is about having an “omnichannel” approach, allowing for special in-store experiences, whether it’s ear-piercing or community events, as well as friction-free online shopping.

Taking a DTC brand into the real world is something Anastasia Lloyd-Wallis, chief operating officer and head of insights at retail consultancy group Retail Doctor Group, says needs to be done considerately.

“Consumers are looking for an experience when shopping, specifically when shopping for higher-value products. If they are not getting an experience then it becomes very transactional and they are comparing prices, and price becomes a much more important factor in their decision-making process,” she says.

“So in order for brands to be able to add value and warrant a higher price tag (and not get compared on price alone), they need to create an outstanding brand experience for the consumer. Some can do this through the online space (but) a much more engaging brand experience can be done in the physical space.

“Our research shows that the physical store is still the number-one-preferred channel for consumers to purchase, and they are visiting stores more often to engage with staff and touch and feel the products.”

A strong community, online and offline, can be a powerful business tool also. As Sakkijha notes: “A main priority for us has been nurturing and strengthening our relationships with members of our community, leveraging their feedback as a way to make design decisions and introduce new products or trends.”

Recently this included the introduction of responsibly sourced lab-grown diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds have the same chemical make-up of “natural” ones but can cost up to 70 per cent less (and do not take requisite billions of years to form as per mined ones).

Another to successfully launch into the lab-grown diamonds category is Pandora, one of the world’s biggest jewellery brands.

In many of its categories it too operates in the sweet spot of entry-level or approachable luxury. As of the second quarter of 2024, Pandora achieved 15 per cent organic growth and an 8 per cent increase in like-for-like sales globally.

Travis Liddle, managing director of Pandora ANZ, says positioning the brand in the affordable luxury segment has been advantageous.

“During times of economic uncertainty, being an affordable luxury brand proves to be highly advantageous.

“Consumers who might avoid high-priced luxury brands are increasingly attracted to a combination of value, craftsmanship, and versatility – qualities that continue to be in greater demand,” he says, adding that retaining relevance by adding more fashion-forward pieces alongside main collections including its “Moments” charms has been key.