An important evening? A ceremony? A special day in which to be at the height of elegance? A jewel cannot be missing. And if you don’t have it, you can always rent it ♦
There are band ruby earrings, studded with diamonds, rings, Liberty pendants: they can be rented for a day on the Jewmia web portal, made in Italy by Marco Matranga. The rental obviously has a different cost for each type of jewel, but ranges from 60 euros to around 400 for a day, while for a weekend the price increases by 50 euros.
It is an example of experiential luxury consumption, that is, which is centered on the pleasure of using a good rather than possessing it. In London, for example, there is Glitzbox, an online jewelery rental service modeled on a beauty-box type subscription, offering three jewels with sterling silver, gold vermeil and semi-precious stones, for those who subscribe to a fee of subscription of 50 pounds a month, or 43 pounds if it’s an annual subscription. Also in London Bentley & Skinner rents jewelry to men and women in all price ranges, from a few pounds to several thousand, with an average of 50,000-60,000 pounds per jewel. Acquired Time, based in Singapore, offers luxury watches instead, again through a monthly subscription service. And in the US there is Flont.com, a rental service specialized in jewelery brands that has more than 10,000 members and manages three types of subscription programs for semi-precious jewelery (from $ 59 a month) and one for jewelery luxury (from $ 239 a month).
“The rental is consistent with what is happening in the production of luxury goods, a process so fast that the purchased object is passed as if it were already old. Thus, the true luxury becomes being able to afford all that is desired in the moment in which it is desired, with a sense of exclusivity, “says Matranga, Palermo-based goldsmith, owner of the historic jewelery shop of the same name. That to move a market in crisis has decided to bring this business into the industry. The most loyal customers are the Swiss followed by Frenchs, Germans and English. “On average, rentals guarantee a jeweler’s 75 percent gain without losing the asset, so much so that some of our suppliers have started to create objects precisely for these purposes, that is to produce income”, explains Matranga, who in addition to being founder of Jewmia he is also the administrator.
How does it work? All procedures, costs and details are explained on the site. «It is very simple: the supplier packs the item in a numbered tamper proof envelope, provided by us and delivers it to a conventioned UPS forwarder (the packages are insured with an international broker). As soon as the rental has ended (which is generally for a day or a weekend), Jewmia warns the courier to contact the customer for the return ». Matranga admits that the world of jewelry is rather traditional and those who have overcome an initial mistrust are just over twenty. But the contact with companies to promote the platform has brought out another need, caught the flight by the entrepreneur: the need to dispose of the safes, with out of production watches and past jewels of fashion but not convenient to fuse.
Jewels Private Outlet is an additional service where alongside the list price, there is the discounted one decided by the jeweler and the customer with the button make an offer, can also try to buy downwards. “I entered the typical e-bay negotiation making it a little simpler, because our category is not really an expert in technology and has neither the time nor the desire to fill in forms, take photographs, indicate keywords”, continues Matranga. If the ways to sell online are still largely to be explored, it is undeniable that the Internet is an opportunity for children to have a global showcase at a very low cost and for customers to buy niche Made in Italy products. And it happens that those who had sold Longines found a buyer of Tokio for a platinum and diamond brooch that he sold for 8 thousand euros. In short, selling is offering people goods and services but it also counts to be present in every point of contact, digital or physical, with a value proposition. Monica Battistoni
