Online and offline, the ultimate symbiosis

‘Online and offline,
the ultimate symbiosis’

Before she founded My Jewellery in 2011, Sharon Hilgers (32) was a French teacher. She began pursuing her extraordinary passion for jewellery by developing her webshop, and then later opened her first boutique in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Today, My Jewellery has become one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies in the Netherlands, with over 625 employees and twenty boutiques all over the country. ‘The physical presence in the shopping boulevards that suit our target group gives our brand extra depth.’

‘From the first day, My Jewellery focused on growing its following online and began creating a huge community that came for daily inspiration,’ says Sharon. ‘Our success is based on a smart marketing strategy. We focus on a broad target group in the mid-market segment, meaning young girls who do most of their shopping online, along with the 30+ target group, who are the ones you will mainly see in our boutiques. Online, the focus is on personal blogs, atmosphere, experience, and the top pieces and products showcased with the very best photography. What makes us stand out is our passion and love for jewellery and fashion. You can feel it in everything My Jewellery does. This gives us a broad reach online and generates a lot of traffic for us, not only in our webshop but on every social media platform. And you feel that engagement, that commitment, in our boutiques as well. When you step inside one of our boutiques, the love and passion for jewellery hit you right away. Online and offline complement each other perfectly; it is the ultimate symbiosis.’

The right shopping boulevards

‘For our boutiques, we look for the right cities, which means those with a university and colleges, and which have fun and attractive shopping areas. We go for the ultimate experience, with charming, preferably historic buildings that support this experience,’ Hilgers says. ‘These are the kind of location that you only find in inner cities. A key factor here is the right setting, which means not alongside mainstream shops, but locations that are a good fit with our brand, with attractive sidewalk cafés, coffee shops and restaurants in the immediate vicinity. We are not necessarily looking for the most expensive locations, but rather the segment just below that. Our locations are chosen to contribute atmosphere, enhance the shopping experience and give our brand an uplift. In a pleasant and fun environment, our target group gets inspired, and we lower the threshold for coming into the boutique. In combination with My Jewellery’s big online presence, this works perfectly. Like it works perfectly for our mission, which is to style you for your daily celebration of life in our affordable design jewellery and quality clothing and accessories.’

“By adding apartments Vastned contributes to increasing the housing stock above shops and this also has positive impact on the liveability of inner-city shopping areas after the closing time of the shops. This creates value in multiple ways.“

Perfect feel for the target group

‘My Jewellery’s success lies in the fact that we have a perfect feel for what matters to our target group,’ says Hilgers. ‘We are trend-makers, but we also follow the trends our customers are interested in. We keep our whole creative process in-house. We craft our waterproof pieces from high-quality, sustainable stainless steel. Our clothing line is extraordinarily contemporary and speaks to just what our community is looking for. Every collection is feminine and down-to-earth in design, with vibrant colours and a vintage, French touch; our jewellery and fashion give our community an effortless, accessible way to feel self-confident, strong and stylish. And that is what My Jewellery is about.’