Velvetcase, a jewellery store selling made-to-order ornaments

As the buying power of Indians goes up, diamonds and jewellery have become an important avenue for investment. But gone are the days when chunky pieces of jewellery designed by traditional jewellers could please the customer. The new-age customer wants more customization and better designs. Looking to please this modern customer and satiate his demand for better design and customized jewellery, Kapil Hetamsaria and Runit Shah setup VelvetCase, a consumer jewellery brand from Mumbai.

VelvetCase makes customised jewellery designs according to the desire and budget of the customers. They create ‘made to order jewellery’ and have an extensive database of jewellery designs from around the world.

Kapil is an engineer and an MBA with over 15years corporate experience with companies like McKinsey & Co., Microsoft and Dell. As founder and CEO he looks after overall vision and product strategy & sales at VelvetCase. Runit is an industrial engineer and an MBA and as the co-founder & COO takes care of merchandising, building distribution channels and operations.

The duo is supported by seven other professionals with experience across verticals like technology, jewellery, consumer retail, user experience (UX design) and supply chain.

Kapil realises that the buyer today is different from those a decade ago: “There is a greater exposure to global fashion and trends and this make them demand for a greater variety in jewellery”. To make sure the customer gets enough to choose from, VelvetCase has a thousand-plus curated global designs, handpicked by experts. The users can look at a video of every design before they proceed to buy them. Another customer delight factor is that, all jewellery sold at VelvetCase is priced at 30-50% cheaper than the market price. They are able to keep the prices low because of the minimal inventory and retail costs. In the last four months, VelvetCase has delivered over 100 orders across India, including USA, UK and Singapore. These orders have varied from Rs 500 to Rs 30 lakhs and a good number of 30% customers have placed a repeat order.

Despite the good progress, VelvetCase is still struggling to get the best team in place. “Recruiting smart people with a passion and belief to make a chance in the customer behaviour has not come easy,” says Kapil. Kapil wants to make VelvetCase a $100 million company and wants to do to the jewellery business what Dell did to the PC industry and Amazon to the ecommerce market. In the next five years, VelvetCase wants to create an avenue where people can invest and grow their money just like real estate and equity markets. “We want to be known as India’s first global consumer luxury brand specializing in high quality craftsmanship with transparent policies where people can invest for their future,” says Kapil ambitiously.