Editor’s Note
This article explores how assisting a family jewelry business revealed a gap in the online market for high-value items, leading to the creation of a new IT service and startup. It highlights the evolving consumer behavior driving the digital transformation of traditional industries.
The jewelry market is worth about 6 trillion won, but the online commerce sector has been notably inactive. This is because consumers have been reluctant to purchase high-value gemstones online. Many preferred to visit offline stores to meticulously check prices and designs before buying. Recently, as e-commerce has become commonplace across all industries, the jewelry market is gradually expanding its online presence. This is due to consumers becoming more familiar with e-commerce and an increasing demand for purchasing low-cost accessories online. Heo Se-il (34), CEO of Be Jewel, is a young entrepreneur leading the online jewelry commerce market. His company, which combines IT technology with the jewelry business, is gaining attention as a promising startup.
Heo Se-il, CEO of Be Jewel, launched Korea’s first jewelry quotation service, “Be Jewel” (same as the company name), in December 2017. Regarding his motivation, Heo said:
He explained that he began contemplating new sales channels after hearing his parents lament about poor business. In the jewelry market, which was like a barren land for IT services, he focused on O2O (online to offline) services that connect users and sellers, similar to delivery apps, motel booking apps, and rental apps. His previous work experience in cloud computing services at companies like KT and IBM helped him concretize the business plan.
However, the path to entrepreneurship was tough. Surprisingly, his parents’ opposition was significant. They were not pleased that their son, who had left a respectable large corporation, wanted to walk the same path as them. Furthermore, as a breadwinner with a one-year-old child, concerns poured in from those around him about taking this difficult path.
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The startup idea was surprisingly close at hand. Heo noted that the first time people usually buy precious metals is in their 20s or 30s when getting married, but many feel lost due to a lack of information when buying wedding gifts because they’ve never purchased precious metals before. With this flash of insight, Heo boldly established the company in February 2017 with a capital of 5 million won.
The jewelry quotation service works as follows: users write their desired budget and design to request a quote. The quotation is then sent to jewelry companies, and the service matches users and sellers with stores and products. Consumers can purchase jewelry according to their desired conditions without having to search extensively. The advantage for businesses is that they can secure potential customers and sales channels. The service connects consumers to about 300 partner stores, offering products with various designs and prices. Quotation requests are free, and repeated requests are possible. CEO Heo said consumer satisfaction with this new service is high.
There were many difficulties in the process of running the business. Like other startups, securing funding was a major challenge for CEO Heo. After much consideration, he actively sought investment and succeeded in attracting funds from six institutions, including Capstone Partners and Kolon InnoVase. It is rumored that these investors highly evaluated Be Jewel’s potential to grow as a ‘game changer’ in the stagnant jewelry market, similar to delivery apps in their sector.
He also actively knocked on the doors of government startup support programs. The startup, less than two years old, unusually won the honor of being selected for about 10 government and local government-run startup support programs, including those by KOITA (Korea Industrial Technology Association), the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ TIPS program, and Seoul City’s Innovation Challenge.
Encouraged by the success of the jewelry quotation service, CEO Heo has expanded his business domain within the jewelry sector. He ambitiously commercialized a new accessory distribution channel (shopping mall) called “Amons” last month. Through a subsidiary, he also launched a jewelry brand utilizing big data.
Interestingly, Amons also collects and analyzes data such as product clicks, purchase rates, and design preferences of its users. It actively uses data collected and analyzed from online portals and SNS to capture trending jewelry keywords. Consumer trend keywords are used as foundational data for creating its own brand. It differentiates itself from the traditional jewelry production method, which relies on intuition, by using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to predict consumer demand in advance.
Be Jewel, which started with 2 people at its founding, has now grown to 20 employees. Sales are growing at a high rate of 15% monthly. CEO Heo did not specify the amount but expressed confidence that this year’s sales are expected to grow fivefold compared to the previous year. His ultimate ambition is to create a global jewelry brand.
