Four years later, Mejuri, every millennial’s favourite online fine jewellery retailer continues to grow.
Everything about Mejuri from its products to its marketing and social media presence screams digital-native millennial friendly. With around half a million followers on Instagram alone, one wouldn’t be wrong to presume that Mejuri has got this internet success thing down pat.
What’s surprising is, behind the helm of the company’s fluent internet-savviness is three generations of painstakingly acquired real world knowledge. CEO Noura Sakkijha spent her formative years learning about traditional production techniques and jewellery design from her parents and grand parents who were employed in the fine jewellery business.
After a stint at university studying industrial engineering and another at a financial institution in Toronto, Sakkijha made her prodigal return to her family’s historical industry, co-founding Mejuri with COO Maj Masad in 2015. The source of much of their success, apart from clever marketing was something the company borrowed from the streetwear model and the likes of fashion behemoths like Zara: the weekly drop.
New products hitting the store every Monday rather than the traditional seasonal or yearly release gave customers incentive to return frequently, which was a first for the mostly bespoke, sometimes seasonal collection-based fine jewellery industry. By cutting out the middle-people and retailing online (with a few strategic brick-and-mortar showrooms), Mejuri is able to keep costs low and consumer interest high.
Also novel to the industry and close to Sakkijha’s heart is the narrative of targeting women who purchase jewellery for themselves rather than the archaic notion of waiting to be on the receiving end of gifting. The concerted effort has paid off with 75 percent of Mejuri’s current customers identifying as women who are looking to purchase for themselves.
1500 releases and 20 million website visitors later, the company has continued to grow four times over year-on-year with over 120 employees spread between offices in Toronto and Buenos Aires, Argentina. In April, the company announced it secured $23 million in its latest round of funding. Not only was Sakkijha seven months pregnant during negotiations but the funding amount is almost four times all previous funding raised by the company.
Oh, and it was twins. NBD.