A Fine Jewelry Company Where Consumers Set the Price
A By Jay Nachman
rare gemstone; or classic pieces such as the Eterna, an adjustable sterling silver necklace coated with gray diamonds on the front and sides. Ooi learned from Style Trek that there is a customer base “one inch wide and ten miles deep. In a flat world,” she says, “very deep, rich niche markets can exist because of the ability to network together customers all around the world, to create economies of scale.” A decade before it became, well, fashionable, Ooi found while running Style Trek that e-commerce and fashion turn on the idea of curation, which is to say, the idiosyncratic tastes of the owner. Plukka’s motto is, “What we make is what you want.” The company doesn’t make a piece of jewelry unless someone wants it, and goes a step further with what is called a reverse auction in
Armed with years of experience for some of the biggest names
which consumers set the price. Prices go down — sometimes as
in fashion, Joanne Ooi L’93, a born entrepreneur, decided to
much as 20 percent —in proportion to the number of customers
start her own business in 1997: she opened two boutiques in
who place orders. Not bad for a site where the average price is
Hong Kong with merchandise targeted to the style cognoscenti.
$1,500 and the average value of each sale is $750.
With the vision of a curator, she sold items like vintage Grateful
Ooi, who still lives in Hong Kong with her second husband
Dead tees reworked into embroidered one-of-the-kind skirts and
and 14-year-old son, was born in Singapore to parents who
hand-painted lambskin bags.
were medical researchers. They decided to move the fam-
One store, Style Trek, turned high profits. The other boutique
ily to Cincinnati to advance their careers. It was a childhood
foundered. The mass market location didn’t bring in the kind of
similar to the one chronicled in the Battle Hymn of the Tiger
discerning customers Ooi sought. Throw in the divorce she was
Mother, a best-seller that described the Asian emphasis on work
going through and Ooi decided to close up shop and move on.
and achievement.
But fear not, fashionistas. The indomitable Ooi has returned
Ooi returned to Asia after graduating from Penn Law. “I
with a new venture predicated on the lessons she learned running
wanted to step out of the typical law grad narrative as soon as
the e-commerce hub of Style Trek. Plukka, an online fine jewelry
possible and, based on a vacation to Hong Kong, decided that
company, takes its name from the words “pukka” (which means
it was the place for me. Twenty years ago, Hong Kong really
genuine, reliable, proper) and “pluck” (a synonym for courage
had a Wild West entrepreneurial atmosphere which I found very
and resolution). The reviews have been sterling. Jewelry News
compelling and still do,” says Ooi.
Asia, the world’s largest jewelry fair, declared Plukka the Most
She started her career with what she called “lowly, hard
Innovative Retailer of last year and in 2013 named her company
work” supervising fashion brands manufactured in China. She
e-tailer of the Year. IDEX, the industry’s most authoritative news
spent her formative years as Asian sales chief for French shoe
outlet, praised the business model in a story headlined “Wake
designer Stephane Kélian. “I learned everything except how to
Up & Smell the Paradigm Shift.”
make products, literally,” Ooi says. “I used to take shoe samples
With its online-only, made to order stock, Plukka cuts out
in a suitcase to virgin markets like Indonesia and just figure it
the middleman and eliminates many of the costs associated with
all out on the fly. I would visit the top shopping malls, identify
brick and mortar stores, showrooms and inventory, and the high
the most prestigious retailers and wheedle their salespeople into
markups of designer jewelry retailers. Having no inventory frees
calling the boss, so that I could introduce myself and Stéphane
Plukka to offer edgy and unconventional jewelry, such as the
Kélian to them in person. I was completely fearless and nothing
diamond “Ramses II” ring with three projecting pyramids of
could embarrass or intimidate me. This is really the foundation
18 karat rose gold and the diamond “Serpent’s Birdcage” ear-
of what success I’ve enjoyed in my career: developing the mettle
rings, which feature an intricate bird cage suspended from a
to deal with rejection and adversity. To my mind, that’s what’s
curled snake and a setting of pink sapphires and tsavorites, a
most important. It’s about character, not genius.”
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