Are we ready for a jewellery rental service? Eves 24 thinks so
‘Marriage is for a lifetime, jewels should be term affairs,’ thus reads the tagline of Eves24.com, India’s first jewel rental service which promises to ‘Unlimit your jewel wardrobe. Forever.’
It all started at a cousin’s wedding for Eves24 Founder Rahul Banka where he overheard his aunt complain, “Oh God, I have to wear my emerald and pearl set once again; to think I wore it only three weeks ago at the other family function is so depressing.’ It was easy to relate to her problem. She obviously did not have as many jewellery sets to wear to the number of functions she had to attend. It is anyway not possible to keep buying expensive, exquisite jewellery, only to wear it once and then keep it inside the locker,” says Rahul, explaining how he got the idea of his lifestyle venture.
Taking toddler steps in this innovative sector, Eves24 already has a loyal customer base in place. Mostly the fashion conscious lady who wants to look her resplendent best on all social occasions, be it a family wedding, reception, and parties etc. The pain point for ladies was the fact that given the huge number of dresses and sarees they don at different occasions, there wasn’t much option when it came to jewellery. A membership on this platform promises to be the perfect answer to their woes.
“We want to give women the freedom to possess and wear sophisticated jewellery, each set different from the other. This is a cutting-edge concept to give women the freedom to express themselves through jewellery,” says Rahul, a Chartered Accountant by qualification, who gave it all up to start Eves24.
How does it work?
This venture provides two kinds of services, buying jewellery and taking exquisite pieces on rent.
Called the Easy Jewel Services, the first service enables women to invest in regular, daily-wear diamond pieces. They are free to choose a jewellery of their choice and pay the company on an EMI basis like one would purchase any other product on monthly instalments which are easy on the pocket. From the day the company gets its first EMI, the customer is provided the jewellery piece to flaunt. Over a period of time, the customer gets to build an enviable collection of her own.
The second service, the Jewel Library Service is perhaps the more interesting of the two. For the higher priced seldom worn jewellery, customers can pick up sets either for three or seven days for weddings and functions and return it duly to the company. The only thing the customer needs to pay is a usage fee, which is either five percent or seven percent of the product value, depending on whether they are picking it up for three or seven days.
Once the set is back, the company sends it for cleaning and shining to make it ready for the next user.
The membership plans
It is an annual membership plan that needs to be renewed every year. There are four different kinds of membership plans of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. One needs to simply select a membership plan, fill up a KYC form, sign the company’s membership agreement and create Smart Security for the firm. Once done, the firm will create and provide the customer with a User ID and password. That is good to get the individual going and browse from the varied range on offer. There is no restriction on the number of Easy Jewel or Jewel Library transaction done during the annual membership period. However, it will be subject to the membership plan availed.
The smart security
Eves24 needs some security to provide customers the benefits. The company requires customers to provide them security for renting out the jewellery. Customers are required to provide the company security equal to 110% of the Membership level.
That means for a Rs 1 lakh membership level, the customer is required to provide a security of Rs 1.1 lakh and for Rs 5 lakh membership level, the users have to provide the firm a security of Rs 5.5 lakh and so on.
To make the customer feel safe, cost effective and convenient, the company advises a win-win solution for security creation whereby they need not transfer the security amount to the company’s bank account.
“One would have certainly planned for investments in fixed deposit (FD). That can be provided by the customer by giving the lien of the FD to the company, while they continue to own the amount and get a handsome interest too ,” says Banka.
Currently, this company operates in Mumbai alone.
