Building Gemist

How I created and grew Gemist into what it is today

Happy New Year everyone! This is an exciting start to the year for Gemist as we are officially sharing our proven technology solutions with the jewelry industry at-large.

As we embark on this adventure, It feels fitting to take a moment to look back at how we got here. It’s a beautiful thing when your vision becomes a reality. That’s what makes being a founder such an incredible journey. This is the story of how I started Gemist and grew it into the company it is today.

I’ve been creating and growing successful technology start-ups for the past ten years. Every company I have created solves some kind of problem through technology – primarily creating user experiences that make life easier online.

If I were to define myself in one word, I'd call myself an Artist. I actually am a painter and sculptor, which was my passion before I went down the path of starting companies. What I realized early on in my career was that being a founder & CEO is not much different than being an artist. It takes the same amount of creativity to dream up something out of nothing, the same dedication and hard work, and the same sense of vision to see what that final outcome will look like. My medium as an artist is no longer clay but rather building companies.

“What I realized early on in my career was that being a founder & CEO is not much different than being an artist. ”

All of the great ideas I've had that eventually turned into start-ups came out of first hand experiences – usually experiences that weren’t great and that I knew I could make better. I came up with the idea of Gemist when I became a jewelry consumer, on the hunt for the perfect ring. I wanted to create something that was unique to me, something nobody else had. I felt certain that there would be an online shopping experience that would let me customize my own jewelry to make that dream a reality.

I was blown away by how outdated and clunky the jewelry websites I had visited were. I found myself feeling overwhelmed and confused, rather than excited and ready to purchase. It was clear to me that very little technology innovation had entered the jewelry industry in a long time. As my wheels started turning, I looked into the market further and was shocked to learn that it was a huge $300 billion dollar global industry that was only about 15% online. I was right, digital innovation was not something this industry was thinking about - that meant there was an opportunity.

“ It was clear to me that very little technology innovation had entered the jewelry industry in a long time.”

I then looked into the market demographics to see what kinds of consumers were buying jewelry. Turned out that the leading demographic that had over 65% of the buying power were Millennials. Younger people were the target demographic ready and willing to spend the most money on jewelry, yet the industry wasn’t creating experiences to cater to how those consumers shopped online. Turns out, modern consumers shop in very unique ways. For example, 85% of Millennials prefer customization when shopping online and 71% of Millennials want to try before they buy.

What if we could build technology that supported these unique “customize & try” user experiences and highlighted jewelry in a completely new and innovative way online?

My hypothesis: That would really work!

So that’s what we built. Our technology allows for the ability to customize and visualize jewelry online with the additional option to try-on your custom designs in replica form at home before purchasing. A pretty radical and unique idea when it comes to the traditional jewelry industry.

My vision was to then be able to take our technology solution and share it with the jewelry industry at large. I figured if consumers were having this hard of a time shopping online, jewelry brands must be having an even harder time selling jewelry online.

The first step to make this dream a reality: PROVE IT.

So, that’s what we did. We created Gemist first as a direct to consumer jewelry brand to build, test & iterate our technology before sharing it to the rest of the industry. We wanted to ensure that our solutions were backed by meaningful consumer data and statistics before offering it to anyone.

We’ve found across the board that our platform works magic. We are seeing huge increases in consumer engagement, conversion rates, repeat purchases, average order values, and final mile sales as compared to industry standards.

Now, we are ready to license our proven model to jewelry brands.

“We are seeing huge increases in consumer engagement, conversion rates, repeat purchases, average order values, and final mile sales as compared to industry standards. ”

As fate would have it, the timing couldn’t be better, because the pandemic created a new reality for the jewelry industry. Jewelry brands were forced to get online or die when retail went to zero. That caused the online market share to nearly double in a few short years from 15-25%. Now, brands are realizing how hard it is to sell jewelry online and the current advertising climate is making it even harder.

Bottom line: jewelry brands need help selling online now.

The great news, Gemist is the solution.