Jeweler saves family business with a gem of an idea

When Yong-il Cho was young, he dreamed of becoming a researcher at a pharmaceutical company, and even majored in biotechnology in college. But in 2012, when his father’s jewelry factory of over 30 years began to struggle, Yong-il put his dreams on hold to help support his father. 

“Due to economic desperation, I got a job right away in my fourth year of college. I spent six days a week traveling to different hospitals around Seoul and the metropolitan areas,” said Yong-il. In his job, he made around 2.5 million won (less than 2,000 dollars) a month, but spent over a third of that amount for gas alone. By 2015, the situation at the factory grew so dire that his father asked Yong-il to join him. Yong-il obliged, but the economic strain soon spread to his own family following the birth of his child. “My income situation didn’t change, but baby diapers and milk cost a lot of money. One day my wife said in tears, ‘We’re 600,000 won short of our credit card statements,’” he said. It was that moment which made Yong-il realize he had to make a drastic change.

With 3 million won in seed money, Yong-il entered the online jewelry business, and signed up for Coupang Marketplace in 2018. While it was a risk, he felt he had a killer idea—selling gold jewelry at cheaper prices by removing wholesalers from the distribution process. For example, at the time he launched his company Ellen Jewelry, gold chain rings were sold online for 40,000 to 50,000 won each. This was due to the complicated distribution process of online jewelry shops, which also typically included high fees. 

“Other online markets had high commissions, so it was difficult to make a profit even with increased sales,” said Yong-il, but “Coupang has a lower fee compared to these markets. I thought to myself, could I sell chain rings on Coupang for 20,000 won instead of 40,000?”

When Yong-il launched his chain rings on Coupang, he made 440,000 won in sales his first month. But as word spread about the quality of Ellen Jewelry’s rings for almost unbelievably low prices, sales began to skyrocket. By the end of 2019, monthly sales grew nearly one hundred-fold to 40 million won, and today, Ellen Jewelry makes around 100 million to 200 million each month.

Yong-il’s success isn’t just the result of the great quality and prices of his company’s products. He is also vigilant about search engine optimization, making full use of Coupang’s keyword function to increase product exposure. “Coupang allows you to set up 20 detailed keywords per product, while other online markets limit you to around 10,” said Yong-il. “The better the seller is at selecting good marketing keywords, the better the product exposure, and seasonal strategy is important.” Ellen Jewelry regularly updates its product keywords, such as by using “Christmas jewelry gift” during Christmas and “Jewelry for outdoors” during sunny days.

Yong-il also adds a personal touch to each of his products, including handwritten letters of gratitude with all Ellen Jewelry purchases. When he first started the company and had no employees, Yong-il would write all the letters himself, often writing until 2 or 3 in the morning each day. He attributes the growth of repeat purchases and the spread of Ellen Jewelry’s popularity to this gesture, which showed how much the company cared about their customers.

After launching his company and joining Coupang Marketplace, Yong-il saw his income increase over tenfold, paid off hundreds of millions of won in credit card debt and mortgages, and even hired seven employees for his company. Business has also boomed for his father, who was able to hire five new employees after sales for his factory grow 30-40%. 

“The jewelry market is a highly competitive red ocean, with many large companies,” said Yong-il, “but on Coupang, as long as the quality of your products is good, they’ll gain exposure no matter how small your company is and you’ll be able to grow.” He added, “I will continue to nurture my company into one that is beloved by customers.”