Shining bright

Founded in 2005 by John Yu, a gemologist with a deep-rooted passion for diamonds, ALUXE has rapidly grown to become Taiwan’s leading wedding ring brand. What started as an online-only venture has blossomed into a network of 18 retail stores across Taiwan, with additional locations in Hong Kong, Singapore and soon, Thailand.

“Most Taiwanese jewelry brands don’t venture abroad, but in our case, we had already become the number one brand in the country and knew that the local market is limited in size,” Yu tells The CEO Magazine.

“In 2023 we started expanding quickly, and so far everything has turned out well. We have new stores opening in Hong Kong and Singapore this year and are currently talking with a few major department stores in Thailand; it’s pretty exciting.”

Specialist service

Despite ALUXE’s rapid growth, it’s a turbulent time in the wedding ring market due to a general decline in the number of marriages per year. Another issue is the growing popularity of lab-grown diamonds, which are typically much cheaper and more sustainable to produce than natural diamonds.

As a result, the retail value of natural diamonds has dropped 26 percent since 2022, while the price of lab-grown diamonds has fallen 74 percent since 2020.

“The market is so unclear at the moment, so I just try to focus on something that brings value to the customers,” he says. “The most important thing is they’re getting something that they like, which is why we are heavily focused on customization and understanding our customers’ needs.”

One of the ways ALUXE does this is by focusing on the shopping experience itself, such as calling its sales staff ‘sales consultants’.

“Our consultants have to think like they are friends to the customer, giving friendly advice rather than simply selling a piece of jewelry,” he explains. “For example, many men come into our stores and don’t know what’s going on.

“Rather than just focusing on the budget, our consultants start talking about how the customer met their partner, their shared interests and how they are planning to propose. Once we know these little details, we can help customers turn their story into a ring that symbolizes their love.”

This is made possible thanks to ALUXE’s innovative approach to jewelry design and production. While the traditional way of making jewelry is by hand, today computer numerical control machining allows manufacturers to design pieces using 3D software, which can be shown to customers in advance and then be precisely manufactured.

ALUXE customers can also customize ring designs via the company’s website, allowing them to choose 1.65 million customization options such as the width, colors, number of diamonds and more.

The pursuit of excellence

Beyond ALUXE’s exceptional products and service, the company’s success hinges upon its values, the most important of all being customer focus, according to Yu.

“If you’re sales staff, you’re very focused on the front line, but if you’re in marketing, your customers are the store managers,” he points out.

“If you are in the product team, your customers are the sales consultants. Everyone has customers in different parts of the company, so you have to know who your customers are so you can do your best to help your customers.”

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“Since we started trading in 2017, we have expanded our business. ALUXE is an indispensable and important partner to us now and in the future. We will share our vision for the future while valuing respect for each other’s opinions, and we will continue to explore the best products that suit the branding value of ALUXE.” – Norio Watanabe, Director, Sainte Pure

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An important part of this includes having a positive mindset, a concept that Yu believes will transfer to ALUXE’s customers.

“We serve over 20,000 couples every year and we are making them very happy,” he says. “We should be very proud and passionate about this, so I’m working on how to bring out that positive mindset in all our employees.

“Our company’s been around for 20 years, but I still feel like we are a young company because when we started, I was just 25 and the company was purely online.

“Opening physical stores was a turning point for us, so I always encourage our staff to try new things and innovate.”

ALUXE supports this approach by encouraging employees to move horizontally within the business so they can apply their experience in different functions to spot problems and suggest solutions. Yu also encourages employees to seek out new technologies and ways to apply them.

“I always tell my staff not to be afraid of new things since the only constant is change. It’s OK to change as long as you understand it, and if you don’t understand it, you just try to learn more,” he says.

Thanks to Yu’s passion and leadership, ALUXE is well-positioned to succeed as it expands across the region, bringing its exceptional products and services to new customers at home and abroad.

“Our company vision is to bring happiness to more people in the world. It doesn’t matter how much it costs, we want to provide something that will help customers remember the happy moments in their lives,” he says.