All that shines is gold and ‘Glitteray’
Delicate craftsmanship. Pix by Indika Handuwala
COLOMBO – Rayhana Iyne learned a valuable life lesson early in her career – never give up. Even when you have the door slammed shut in your face. As a teenager, one of her first jobs soon after O-Levels was selling encyclopedias going door-to-door. She found it quite a humbling experience with house-owners rudely cutting her sales-pitch by slamming the door on her. “I quit on the very first day. I didn’t want to go to homes and get chased,” Rayhana ruefully remembers. “But in hindsight, I learned a huge lesson which was not to quit in the face of adversity. There was another team with us that day and they didn’t take no for an answer. They managed to sell some encyclopedias.”
That perseverance left a huge mark on Rayhana, who after a number of false starts with other career pursuits, is on the cusp of taking her start-up Glitteray, a jewellery e-commerce platform, to the next level today. Sri Lanka’s first online jewellery store, Glitteray has been selling pieces made in silver, sometimes enhanced with semi-precious stones, to customers who can purchase their fashion accessories in the comfort of their homes. Next month, the founder will raise her game by launching a line of products made in gold. Rayhana, 28, is quite frank and says she sort of stumbled on to the idea of selling jewellery online.
Having tried her hand in a number of other jobs including baking cakes and sewing, she took up the advice of her dad who had suggested selling jewellery online. “My parents have been very supportive and patient. Soon after the encyclopedia failure, I started doing CIMA and while studying, I thought why not try baking cakes. After a couple of bakes (the cakes burned) I realised I was useless at cooking. Then my mum bought me a sewing machine and I went for sewing classes but that didn’t last long too.”
Rayhana Iyne
Gave up CIMA
She also gave up CIMA after discovering that she didn’t enjoy it one bit. At the crossroads of life, Rayhana began working with a garment company and started sending in her designs. She found out she had a knack for designing and coupled with her liking for social media (Facebook) the idea emerged of becoming an online entrepreneur. “My dad asked me to consider selling jewellery online. So I thought why not. I had tried everything and failed so why not give this a go. And I actually liked it. I put up a piece on Facebook and my friends loved it. The first piece of jewellery I designed and sold was a garnet cluster ring for 2,200 rupees. I thought ‘Wow’ this works.
“It gave me immense satisfaction selling that first piece although the person who bought it was a close friend of mine. I think she had no option but to buy it,” Rayhana laughs. She began in 2006 selling a few pieces. Initially she rented a retail space but by trial and error found out that she could cut her overheads after sales on Facebook started to flow in. “I saw there was no need to have a retail space so I switched to selling through social media. But Glitterray was incorporated and started officially as an e-commerce business only in December 2013.
In five years we had a retail space, and I was switching between this and pop-up stores as I tried different things to see where to place my business. “I didn’t want to be in the traditional business of having a retail outlet and waiting for people to come in. I wanted to go to people and sell to them directly.” During her journey of discovery, Rayhana applied for funding from start-up funding platform Venture Engine and won the second runner-up slot. With that seed money she embarked on accelerating her dream.
Amazing journey
“It’s been an amazing journey with them (Venture Engine) and they have become more like partners than investors. They believe in my ideas,” Rayhana recounts. The first year after getting her seed capital, 2014, was all about establishing her base. Glitteray came too early for the local market where people were hesitant to buy jewellery online. While more and more people were buying clothes, books and electronics online, when it came to jewellery, it seemed they still wanted to sit in front of a jeweller, sip free soft drinks and browse through pieces rather than order on the Internet. “There was a lot of trust issues like can you use a credit card and have jewellery delivered home.
It took us a year to build our base and credibility.” One way of overcoming the trust hurdle was by introducing a try-at-home approach whereby customers could wear the jewellery and see if they liked it, rather than just having to order online and accept the product on delivery. Customers could also pay on delivery and only if they liked what they wore. Although not a qualified designer, Rayhana had an eye for good designs and an intuitive knack for knowing what would look good on a woman. “I was always interested in fashion although as a schoolgirl I was never fashionable,” reveals Rayahana who went to Harrow International in Wellawatta.
But over a period of time, she discovered that she “could tell people who I was” through her fashion statements. Her love affair with fashion blossomed and confidently she began to put down her ideas on paper and see them transformed into reality by craftsmen. “We work with a pool of freelance designers today. People send in designs and I select the designs and we manufacture them. So if you send in a design we will pay you a royalty on sales.” She has three fulltime designers on board. Recently she launched a line of jewellery designed by model Gamya Wijayadasa called Glitteray Nights Out.
Sells 500 pieces a month
While sales have bumped up to a minimum of 500 pieces a month – when she started it was only 50 pieces – the biggest satisfaction for Rayhana is that Glitteray also provides a livelihood for craftsmen. She has one manufacturing facility in Panadura but also employs others. “We meet craftsmen and get them to work for us. We train them to become a leader and managers. We help them set up facilities at home and provide equipment, finance and management. They exclusively manufacture for us. We have four facilities with nine guys in total. “It is very satisfying to give our talented craftsmen a job. There was one guy who had lost his wife and had children to take care of and no one to look after them. He now works for us from home.”
Glitteray has built up a network of craftsmen in villages who expertly turn out pieces. They also work closely with the technical colleges in Moratuwa and Maradana. “There is so much talent in Sri Lanka. Our craftsmen are easily the best in the region,” Rayhana points out. The initial foray was made with silver but now the target is to move into gold. “Silver is an entry-level product. To capture the market, we needed to go with a product people will take a risk with. Gold is more riskier and also it needs more investment.” The biggest challenge is whether to stockpile gold, in case prices go up. “The pricing strategy for gold is different from silver as it fluctuates.
We must tackle that outright – whether we manufacture as we go along or stock up. It is only by trial and error we will learn. “It is a huge risk. If the trial failed with silver we will lose a couple of hundred thousand rupees. If the trial fails with gold we stand to lose a big amount, a couple of millions,” says Rayhana. Rayhana has come a long way. She is confident that despite all the attendant risks, Glitteray has made it and has the potential to one day become a “brand known worldwide”. Not bad for someone who had doors slammed shut in her face.