How Mejuri jewelry has changed the way you buy your bling

“Usually men sell them for women,” says the third-generation jeweler, whose family name is synonymous with fine jewelry in her native Jordan. “We wanted to create a do-it-yourself brand—buy yourself a damn diamond.”

After earning a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Jordan, Sakkija followed her brother to Toronto in 2008, where she pursued a part-time MBA at the Ted Rogers School of Management while working at CIBC.

While studying, Sakkija met her future husband and business partner, Majed, with whom she worked on a business plan for a crowdsourced jewelry design company.

The idea won the top prize in TMU's Slaight New Ventures competition, as well as $25,000 in seed funding.

But Sakkija says that after graduating and leaving CIBC to work on it full-time in 2013-14, they found the crowdsourcing idea unviable as it lacked a cohesive brand direction, so in 2015 they pivoted and relaunched the brand built around the end user.

At the time, new businesses were using the direct-to-consumer model to offer lower prices in industries such as fashion and cosmetics, while using online tools to raise awareness.

“We wanted to reduce the distance between the client and us,” says Sakkija. “Fine jewelry is highly fragmented and there is an opportunity for the next generation brand to come in and take market share at a global level.”

In the ten years since, Mejuri has fulfilled more than seven million orders online and through its 56 brick-and-mortar stores in Canada, the United States, Australia and London.

The Star caught up with Sakkija at Mejuri's head office in Toronto ahead of the annual Black Friday sale to talk about the company's core mission, its efforts to keep the industry at a higher standard and how rapid rise in gold prices dictate the jewelry trends of this season.

Growing up, everyone around me was an entrepreneur, even my cousins, so it seemed natural.

I always dreamed of doing something big. I loved the idea of ​​a factory and the idea of ​​making things, even when I was a child.

I've always loved math, I've always loved science, I love art too, but I'm bad at it, so engineering made a lot of sense. My brother Masoud studied engineering and I followed in his footsteps, but did industrial engineering because it was closer to business.

I've always wanted a global experience and my brother lived here, so I thought I'd go somewhere where I have family. I came to Canada to do my MBA and had the idea of ​​returning after that, but then I met my husband and business partner Majed and decided to stay.

Majed and I created a business plan for an early version of Mejuri as part of a school project. After graduating, I pitched it to the Slaight New Venture Competition and won the grand prize of $25,000 in seed funding.

I swapped my part-time MBA for a part-time job at Mejuri while working full-time as a consultant in CIBC's technology department.

At that time, the company was based on crowdsourcing – we wanted to empower designers from all over the world – but when we started working on it seriously in 2013we realized it didn't work.

Because there was no creative direction. I liked the idea of ​​creating a brand and it requires a lot of consistency, so in 2014 I quit my job and we changed the whole idea.

Instead of empowering designers, we created a brand that allowed women to buy jewelry for themselves, where we could control the process from start to finish and guarantee the quality of the product. Then in 2015 we relaunched Mejuri.

Direct-to-consumer brands, or what I call “next generation brands,” were popping up across all industries—fashion, leather goods, and cosmetics, for example—but there was nothing in jewelry.

If you wanted to buy jewelry, it was either very expensive jewelry or costume jewelry, but nothing in between. There were a few small designers, but few big brands.

In 2014 McKinsey valued the industry at $200 billion and predicted it would grow to more than $400 billion by 2020, but only 20 percent of jewelry sales are from branded products, compared to 60 percent of watch sales. Thus, the new generation jewelry business with a good reputation has an opportunity to capture market share.

It was a moment of, “How can we make fine jewelry accessible?”

I know from my family business that men usually sell it to women, it's usually a high price that requires a certain purchasing power to access, and you usually put it in a box and wear it on occasion. We wanted to create a brand that was focused on self-purchase—as we say, “buy yourself a damn diamond.”

It changes the way you think about design, how you go to market, and how you communicate with clients.

For example, we introduce new products every Monday, whereas for most brands it's two or four times a year. We don't have glass displays because we want people to feel welcome and we want them to be able to touch the products.

We are not a wholesaler, we go directly to consumers through our stores and website so we can offer more affordable prices without skimping on materials, design or manufacturing.

Many of our stores offer piercings so customers can get pierced with the product they want rather than waiting for it to heal first.

These are just a few of the components we have brought to the industry that are fresh and modern.

It doesn't mean anything. I wish there was a better story, but we made it up. We wanted something that didn't yet have meaning, so that we could create meaning ourselves.

Early on in our journey, Oprah was in a commercial for another brand with our Pearl Hoops earrings, and it ended up on a billboard in Times Square, so that was a big moment for us.

And of course Taylor Swift, she wears our Heirloom Red Garnet Ring, which has a lot of meaning to her and she continues to wear it, which shows she really likes it.

Aimee Lou Wood wore our Jojo Double Hoops while promoting White Lotus this summer.

We don't usually work directly with celebrities, but We recently collaborated with tennis star Emma Navarro who wears our products both on and off the court, truly demonstrating how beautiful jewelry can be every day, not just for special occasions.

It just confirms that what we do resonates with these amazing women.

We're all about female empowerment and these influential women could have worn super cool products, but they chose Majuri. Honestly, I think it also makes them more recognizable.

We only worked with Advice for Responsible Jewelry certified manufacturers from the very beginning, but as the company grew we were able to do more.

For example, we use certified recycled gold and silver to offset our carbon footprint, and we have a goal to improve the traceability of our materials to ensure ethical sourcing.

We also invested $1.5 million (U.S.) in a company called Regeneration, which works in old abandoned mines in Canada and Alaska and uses innovative methods to extract gold while restoring the surrounding natural habitats.

That's something I'm really proud of because it feels like, as a 10-year-old company, we're doing something that much larger companies would do.

The price of gold now dictates trends.

Sales have doubled in the last two years, so there is a strong demand for more refined products. We introduced 10k gold with the understanding that 14k gold may now be prohibitively expensive for some styles.

We also work in Gold Vermeil, which is sterling silver plated with 18k gold. This was influenced by the price of gold, but it was already popular because you can get a stunning look without being as expensive.

Clients also understand that gold is an investment, so it remains popular, but we are seeing more interest in alternatives.

Our philosophy is that no matter the metal, we are obsessed with design and quality at good prices. We want our customers to feel special whether they are wearing a $50 or $10,000 product.

I feel like we're just getting started.

Mejuri can become a global brand. There are many wonderful international jewelry companies that have proven that this is possible.

We're expanding aggressively in North America, but I think we have potential globally.