Jewellery trends in Malaysia are traditionally inspired by motifs across various all ethnicities; the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Peranakans and so forth. When contemporary jewellery trends came into play in the recent years, the latest trend that has made its mark is minimalistic jewellery – jewellery pieces that are modern, contemporary and subtle, the go-to jewellery for both formal and daily events. Minimalistic jewellery currently reigns in the jewellery world in Malaysia.
Compared to fine jewellery in Malaysia that primarily champions gold as the go-to material, fashion jewellery is the more popular choice for all walks of life due to its accessibility and versatility. To represent the modern ladies’ traits of confidence, grace and elegance through fashion jewellery crafted by Titanium, Celovis Paris came to light. MWAW spoke to the founder of Celovis, Sammy Chong to learn more about the jewellery label, the e-commerce world and the challenges she faced as an entrepreneur.
"When you have no money, you find a way to earn money."
Get to know Sammy Chong
During times of need, it is only natural for one to seek out solutions – may it be financially or otherwise. For Sammy Chong, she sought out ways to earn an income to keep herself financially stable since young through part-time work. Among her part-time experiences include waitressing at a restaurant, being a salesperson for massage chairs and selling jewellery at a department store. Choosing the lattermost experience and coupling it with a capital of RM200, Celovis Paris was born.
Sammy bought the Celovis domain name six years ago on February 24 2014, along with several pieces of sample jewellery. She then kick-started Celovis Jewellery, originally focusing on zircon (simulated diamond) jewellery. A few months into the business, she realised the saturation of the zircon jewellery market. Determined to have a first-mover advantage using her knowledge of E-Commerce and the latest industry trends, she pivoted her business to becoming Malaysia’s first titanium jewellery label.
What’s amazing about Sammy is that she founded the company while she was still a student. She was just a third year university student pursuing psychology. Unlike other Psychology students who pictured their future as psychologists or counsellors, Sammy had already made up her mind to become a businesswoman.
Coming through as an entrepreneur
When an entrepreneur tells you that they started their business with only a capital of RM200, the next question that comes to mind is - how did they do it? Like any other average third year university student, Sammy couldn’t afford to attend proper entrepreneurial courses or workshops. So, she gathered as much knowledge as she could from the previews offered from business classes instead.
Like most entrepreneurial workshops that entice people to register for their classes, there are usually previews at the end of such talks focusing on with specific business aspects, such as marketing strategies or business domains. She gathered all of that, topped it up with technical stuff she learnt on her own and started her website with minimal cost.
First female titanium jewellery brand
When people think of jewellery, they think of privilege or lavish display of riches and gold. Celovis as a brand goes beyond that perspective. The whole jewellery line represents career ladies in the current world - even if the metal is hard and solid, there are elements like crystal, mother of pearl a.k.a the feminine element to balance it out. There’s a blend of being bold and feminine in one entity which makes it perfect for women of current times.
As an advocate for female empowerment, the founder said, “We want women to be themselves. They can pursue the careers or dreams they have and overcome whatever conflict to unleash their potential.”
Celovis: We are titanium!
In the beginning, Sammy bought a few stocks of jewellery and a few designs from the manufacturing factory that were not titanium. Their business was okay at best, but it wasn’t any different from other fashion jewellery brands. She sat down with her team and discussed the measures they could take to improve the brand.
“When people buy fashion jewellery, they would ask questions like, ‘Will this turn dark or not?’ ‘Can we wear it when we bathe?’ ‘Will it itch or cause allergic reactions?’ I knew we had to change something in our brand then.” she said. One of the common materials in fashion jewellery is brass. Although it is affordable for mass production, they can cause allergic reactions for some who are sensitive to nickel contained in the metal.
They wanted a metal that’s was affordable and of high quality at the same time and - voila! - titanium was the answer to their prayers. In fact, the team found out during their research that titanium is used in the medical industry as surgical tools as they are compatible with the human skin. They changed their whole range of jewellery to titanium and never looked back since. Thus far, Sammy is happy to share that none of her customers reported on allergic reactions to their titanium products, even the ones with allergies to gold!
"There will come a time you need to buck up when you face a challenge, but you'll find that after it's over and done with, you will have levelled up from before."
E-commerce as the main business model
Her interest in e-commerce started when she began buying things online from overseas. Back then, the three online shopping giants in the country were Lazada, Lelong and Zalora. Sammy met some friends who worked in Lazada, observed the way they worked with sellers and buyers and she was hooked.
She was into e-commerce so much that she initially wanted to apply for an e-commerce course at university but there wasn’t any available back then. Sammy shared that she was fascinated by how people did purchases and transactions online. “E-commerce as a passive income was a thing back then as it allows people to earn their income while they’re sleeping. I wanted to try it for myself.” she said.
Now, Celovis Paris stands as one of the earliest retailers to adopt e- commerce as their main business model and they have a strong foothold in the online fashion jewellery industry. She shared that one of the biggest perks of an e-commerce business is seeing the results of her brand’s reach and sales faster as compared to physical retails.
Challenges fired her way but she was here to stay
Although she seemed invincible as the founder of a jewellery brand, Sammy had her own share of challenges that she had to overcome along the way. She battled with a lot of inner conflict, particularly when her family questioned her career change from becoming a psychologist to an entrepreneur. “When my friends were earning an income of RM2,000 to RM3,000 income per month and still had time to enjoy themselves, I was busy saving the extra money I had and put it into my business,” she shared.
Sammy is was an only child and her mother lived and worked in Singapore so she lived with in her grandparents’ home and with other members of the family. When she first started, they questioned her choices to the point that they suspected her of illegal activities when her suppliers would drop off her items.
Instead of taking further blows to her self -esteem, she moved into her own place. Although she was financially alone, Sammy did her best to maintain her faith in herself and achieve her business goals. “Skills and money are important in business, but your mind-set is everything.” The 28-year-old entrepreneur is a firm believer that entrepreneurs must have conviction in whatever they do.
Before this, Sammy was not only the founder of the brand, she held other responsibilities too. She handled marketing, deliveries, photography and publicity of the jewellery to her website through photo uploads. Now that she has a team, things move faster and are more systematic in the management stage.
Building her brand from the ground up
After she moved out, the next step to take was solidifying her brand. Sammy insisted on renting an office space at Pavilion KL when she first started. At the time, she rented out a table with Regus, a co-working space in Pavilion KL.
As she aimed to be an international brand, she needed to build that image from scratch as a startup. Sammy mentioned that, “When you have no profile or a short history, people will look at details of your business like the location of your office.” The female entrepreneur understood that branding was an important factor in building a brand.
Throughout the last few years, Sammy shared that the company’s growth has been promising. Their brand was noticed and companies reached out to them to collaborate as partners; among them were Parkson Elite and SOGO KL. The companies have also invited Sammy to be part of their departmental stores. The company had their first kiosk at Parkson Pavilion, then expanded to SOGO KL and they’re still expanding despite current circumstances.
She was pleased to share that the stores keep inviting Celovis to expand as their sales are either the topmost or second best in their department. As for online sales, she shared that they reach their target sales much faster. She added that the last 10.10 sale hit almost 6 figures daily up to the date.
Future plans for Celovis
Now that Celovis is a Paris-registered brand, the brand is selling internationally on a wider scale. Their brand presence is seen in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The entrepreneur strives to bring the brand forward and expand to more countries.
Although they may be a startup compared to international corporate giants like Pandora and Swarovski in the fashion jewellery world, Sammy aspires to reach their level or get close to it someday.
Advice for women and future entrepreneurs
Sammy advises women to stay true to themselves. Most women tend to lose themselves after committing solely to familial duties and their world revolves only around their homes. “Keep yourself up to date with everything that’s going on around the world and never stop learning.” she says.
She added that most women tend to run away from their problems. Sammy strongly advises for them to face the music instead. “There will come a time when you need to buck up when you face a challenge, but you’ll find that after it’s over and done with, you will have levelled up from before.”
Most young entrepreneurs hesitate to take the first step of building their business. At this occurrence, Sammy tells them to take time to understand their businesses as they grow along with it. “Don’t wait until everything is perfect before you start your business, because the perfect moment doesn’t exist,” she said.
She also tells young entrepreneurs to not rush their success. Everyone wants their business to quickly succeed in a world that moves at lightning speed. However, the entrepreneur believed that you can’t maintain your success if you move too quickly. She commented, “If your ground is not solid enough, you can’t build your brand. It’s not going to take one or two days. Take the time to solidify your business foundations.”
Comments