Mejuri, a Canadian digitally native jewelry brand aimed at the self-purchase market, is planning to open 17 stores this year—more than doubling its current store count, cofounder and CEO Noura Sakkijha told WWD.
Most of those openings will be in the United States and Canada, although Mejuri is also planning to open a second location in the United Kingdom. It currently has nine U.S. stores, plus one in Canada, and one in the United Kingdom, according to its site.
On April 29, Mejuri kicked off its new spate of store openings by debuting a 1,048-square-foot store in Venice, Calif. It also plans to open stores in Seattle, Chicago, and two new locations in Toronto, WWD reported.
Sakkijha told the newspaper that, contrary to industry custom, Mejuri displays all its merchandise out in the open, allowing customers to try on its jewelry.
“There is a real benefit in having people touch and feel the product, and that risk is worth it,” she said. “We always thought it was crazy that you could touch and feel a Gucci bag but can’t touch jewelry. We wanted to provide the same experience and it’s been successful so far.”
So far, shoplifting has been kept to a minimum, she said.
She called opening physical stores “a way for you to manifest your brand and grow your business. Opening new stores has an impact on our growth in the cities that we open. If it weren’t for the pandemic we would have a lot more stores by now.”
In 2020, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sakkijha said she wanted to take Mejuri public in “the near future.”
In 2018, Mejuri opened its first U.S. retail store in New York City, shortly after it opened its first-ever retail location in Toronto. Sakkijha, a third-generation jeweler, founded the brand in 2015.
(Photo courtesy of Mejuri)
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