Editor’s Note
The MZ generation’s preference for access over ownership is reshaping consumer markets worldwide. This article explores how rental and sharing services are expanding beyond niche offerings into mainstream industries.
As the MZ generation establishes itself as the most powerful economic demographic, global industries are being reshaped to cater to these strong-willed individuals. From clothing and bags to jewelry, ‘sharing’ and ‘rental’ services, where items are borrowed instead of purchased, are gaining popularity. The MZ generation, which values experience over ownership, has expanded rental and subscription systems—once limited services—into various fields.
This is because systems like rental and subscription allow the MZ generation, who may not have substantial economic power but prioritize experience, to try out a wide range of products and services with minimal spending. According to global consulting firm McKinsey, the e-commerce market based on subscription models has grown by 100% annually over the past five years.
‘Forever Ring’, a service that converts unused jewelry into points to exchange for desired new pieces, debuted in 2016 when the concepts of jewelry ‘sharing’ and ‘rental’ were not yet established. Lee Shin-woo, CEO of ‘Forever Ring’, built an ‘up-sharing’ process that refurbishes used jewelry and modules into new products for sharing and resale, providing the ‘jewelry swap’ service that is now captivating the MZ generation.
According to the Wolgok Jewelry Industry Research Institute’s annual report, the size of the domestic jewelry market in 2020 was estimated at 5.4117 trillion won and is projected to soon reach 6 trillion won. However, 73.6% of women in their 20s and 85.5% in their 30s reported ‘possessing jewelry they do not wear’.
Furthermore, a March 2021 survey by the same institute on general jewelry consumers revealed that 43.0% of women in their 20s and 34.5% in their 30s expressed willingness to use jewelry rental services. For new product exchange services like Forever Ring’s ‘swap’ service, the figures were significantly higher at 75.6% and 74.2%, indicating very positive interest. Notably, gold jewelry demand among the 20s-30s generation has increased, and online purchases have surged to 15.9% (from 2-5% in 2018).
Regarding this, CEO Lee Shin-woo stated:
Before founding ‘Forever Ring’, Lee Shin-woo ventured into startups across various fields, from men’s clothing shopping malls and web services to IoT. The reason he jumped into the jewelry market, specifically ‘up-sharing’ jewelry, was his attraction to jewelry’s low depreciation. While jewelry itself may lose appeal with changing design trends, managing it in modular units that can be disassembled and recombined allows it to shine forever without depreciation.
‘Forever Ring’ aims to break the stereotype that purchased jewelry cannot be changed. To provide a service where customers can swap their purchased jewelry for other pieces and wear them for a lifetime, the company has built a comprehensive system covering materials, design, manufacturing, and distribution. This includes developing new materials and standard modules, processes for disassembling existing jewelry, and new product lineup processes, all aligned with the current market system.
Through its standard module up-sharing method, ‘Forever Ring’ has achieved a 95% reduction in manufacturing costs and an 80% reduction in distribution costs compared to the traditional industry. This allows customers to swap and wear trendy gold jewelry without financial burden.
With its unique market strategy, ‘Forever Ring’ achieved remarkable growth, reaching approximately 21,400 users and 1.39 billion won in sales by 2020, just four years after its founding, growing about threefold annually. Notably, when customers use the swap service, they often purchase points to acquire more expensive jewelry or additional pieces, thereby increasing their own loyalty and raising barriers to churn. Consequently, the proportion of additional point sales within the swap service revenue, which accounts for 58.5% of total sales, has also been raised to 56.7%.
‘Forever Ring’, which has captivated MZ generation consumers with its ‘jewelry swap’ service, is focusing on expanding its consumer base who choose ‘swapping’ over consumption and is experiencing high growth. It is also leading the future of the jewelry industry by digitizing the previously analog, manual labor-intensive processes.
Going beyond a simple swap service to lead industry innovation while adding both emotional and cost-effectiveness for customers, the ‘blue ocean’ that ‘Forever Ring’ will show in the jewelry market is highly anticipated.
