Cloé Jewelry & Art: industrialisation of Macao jewellery design industry

02 2018 | Issue 25

Text/Jasper Hou

Local original jewellery brand Cloé Jewelry & Art (hereafter referred to as Cloé) was founded in 2015. After starting the jewellery business, the brand founder Chloe Chan hopes to introduce a new model for Macao’s jewellery designindustry, providing custom jewellery design services, which is favoured by many people. 


Artistic aptitude brings new elements


Chloe is fond of art since her childhood. In the early years, she recognised the vacancy in Macao’s private custom jewellery market. She thought about the way to break the traditional jewellery trading model and inject new elements into the jewellery industry in Macao. Based on her solid painting skills, Chloe thought of combining painting design with jewellery sales, and then Cloé jewellery private custom brand was born. At the end of 2014, the online-shop began to operate, and the brand image was developed in 2016. And now, the physical store is set up. In just few years, Cloé has developed steadily. Focusing on special, simple and classic style, it uses different types of natural gemstones for making private custom jewellery. 


Word of mouth and vivid image have a great impact on the industry


From online-shops to physical stores, although the cost increased, street shop could absorb a large number of new customers. With hundreds of goods orders per month, Chloe is confident that the profitability of physical stores will further improve. Chloe believes that the most important factor in the success of the brand is word of mouth. Chloe laughs and says: “My clients range from young students to 80-year-old grannies, so I don’t just invest in the most popular way of advertising right now. For example, older customers don’t use social platforms at all, but they also have a huge demand for jewellery design. It’s very important to rely on the word of mouth from the neighbourhood.” 


In addition, the impact of the brand image on the jewellery design industry cannot be ignored. Chloe believes: “If interior decoration, product packaging and brand publicity use a unified visual effect, the image will be prominent. Thus, many customers can easily associate these visual elements with us, which make us stand out in the numerous brands.” The age groups are covered in a wide range due to the high quality products and affordable prices, which is also a factor in Cloé’s success. 


The significance of private custom product is to have soul and story


The biggest feature of Cloé’s jewellery might be the story in it. Chloe thinks that they are not just selling jewellery. Every time they communicate with customers, they will listen carefully to the customers' stories. “We hope that every jewellery is not just a decoration, but have the characteristics and stories of its owner. Then, the private custom product will be meaningful.” 


To recondition the jewellery might be another significance of a private custom brand. Chloe says: “The customers bring the jewelleries that they have kept for a long time to us. And then we redesign and package them, which give the jewelleries new lives.” This idea received great responses. Many customers brought their tokens for love for reconditioning to the next generation, which is very meaningful. Cloé also boosted orders in just a short period of time because of such sweet services. 


Cross-border cooperation


Cloé also cooperated with neighbouring industries to promote the development of jewellery design industry. Chloe says: “We will jointly cooperate with Macao artists to design jewellery artwork, breaking the traditional design limitations. Besides, we will continue to cooperate with the local designers, and constantly optimise the shop and product packaging design.” In addition, the production line invested by Cloé, from the jewellery designer to craftsmen, and the production process, will be in charge by Chloe, which can timely design and modify according to the needs of customers. 


Opportunities and dilemmas coexist


In the opinion of Chloe, the jewellery design is becoming popular in recent two years and has a good prospect. Meanwhile, she believes that the salary level in Macao is higher than the neighbouring areas and there is a demand for high-quality jewellery consumption. But talent is the biggest difficulty for Macao’s jewellery design industry. Chloe admits: “Macao has a hard time for hiring professional jewellery designers, which is a bottleneck for business expansion.” 


In the future, Cloé will continue to develop personal custom business on the basis of physical store and to further consolidate the brand’s reputation. Chloe also says that she will open up the Japanese market in 2018, and participate in international jewellery exhibition, as well as to bring the brand to international market.