How small jewellery business XVXII went from e-commerce to retail store

COVID-19 has forced many local businesses to go online to focus on the e-commerce marketplace. However, the opposite happened for local jewellery brand XVXII.

Specialising in tarnish free and waterproof jewellery, it was the success of their online store that gave owner Vidhi Modi, 21, the courage to take a leap into a physical retail space.

Youthopia sat down with Vidhi to find out more about how the business grew, and seeks to make it an inclusive one.

Since young, Vidhi had always been into business, although she never knew what field she wanted to go into. This changed during her trip to India in 2019, as she fell in love with the craftsmanship offered in their jewellery, and was inspired to bring it over to Singapore.

“Because I’m Indian, I love my heritage and my culture and I definitely wanted to start my own business with my culture in it. Bringing Desi jewellery to Singapore was the most ideal way for me to do it.”

She thus started her business XVXII in 2020, with the name of her brand representing her father’s birthday in Roman numerals.

Her first collection was fully made in-house, as she designed and produced all the pieces. 

As her brand grew, Vidhi realised that her jewellery’s popularity was limited to certain cultural seasons and holidays, so to sustain the business she began expanding into Western and men’s jewellery.

When she first launched her brand, Vidhi relied heavily on Instagram and word of mouth, and most of her supporters were people who already knew her like family and friends.

But all that changed for the better when she got onto TikTok.

She said: “TikTok is an up and coming social media platform where the algorithm is so nice – you only see what is suited for you. People who are supportive of small businesses are targeted to seeing our content, which makes it a lot better as now we don’t need to pay for ads to redirect our content to a specific audience.”

Barely a few months into using the social media platform, Vidhi had already amassed thousands of followers, and felt her audience could relate more to the brand as they saw the work that goes on behind-the-scenes.

“It makes them feel closer to the brand on a personal scale and that is one of the best factors that exponentially helped grow the brand. Once people start to like the brand genuinely, then they become loyal customers,” said Vidhi, who now has over 23,000 followers on TikTok.

As XVXII grew in popularity, it also garnered its fair share of negative comments, from some comparing her prices with other brands to even rude remarks regarding her models.

However, Vidhi stands by her diverse choice of models as she seeks to build an inclusive brand.

She said: “There’s no discrimination on gender, size, colour, or anything. So anyone can be a part of our brand, as you can see from our website or our social media.”

For Vidhi, launching a retail store is a dream come true.

She mentioned that as much as e-commerce is a thing, the feeling of “touch-and-buy” is irreplaceable.

“I’ve seen that my brand has done very well during pop-ups as people want to try it on first before they buy, and in that sense I think the brand can expand better if we go retail,” she said.

Since rental during COVID-19 was low, Vidhi took a leap of faith and decided to launch XVXII’s physical retail store, sharing every step of the journey in renovating and preparing her store with her followers on TikTok.

Vidhi encourages those who want to venture into a business to not be afraid to start, as you  would never know if it’s going to work out if you don’t give it a try.

“It may or may not, I can’t give a false hope that it would definitely work out, but it’s such a good learning experience knowing what works and what doesn’t work, so definitely start what you want to start,” she said.