Why You Will Love it at Covett, By Kyle Roderick
Covett’s business model is based on the lived experience that shared access to luxury jewellery and watches, that one reserves in advance, and borrows for set time limits is the smartest, easiest, most enjoyable and safest way to enjoy the pleasures of our wearable treasures with zero hassles and maximum style.
Through its easy-to-navigate online platform, Covett is the London-based community where you get to experience and share luxury jewellery and prestige watches on a rotating basis, rather than own them outright. Their jewellery-loving community of Covettists forms a fast-growing segment of the global sharing economy, which PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts will grow to $35 billion by 2025. These and other industry tracking figures suggest that access to fine jewels and wonderful watches through digitally based, shared ownership platforms continues to snowball. We talked to some luxury experts to get some perspective on the social conditions and consumer behaviors that are shaping this bejeweled realm.
As jewellery and watch enthusiast Nancy Trent, a New York-based public relations executive observes, “Wearing luxury jewellery and watches through shared ownership platforms is a win-win-win for smart shoppers, time-crunched style lovers and environmentally conscious jewellery lovers. This model is preferable to them,” Trent theorizes, “because unlike individual ownership, the virtual experience is much less pressured than going to a boutique. While the luxury shared ownership platform is also owning, insuring and maintaining the goods, it’s also presenting people with an environmentally sustainable, economical way to enjoy luxury jewels and watches.”
In many rarefied retail realms, Trent explains, “Customers can sometimes feel they are being judged as inferior, they can feel pressured, or worst of all, they can be ignored by salespeople.” As the founder of the luxury public relations firm Trent & Company, Trent’s jewellery and watch clients have included Philip Stein Watches and the JA New York Jewelry Show, continues, “Virtual luxury goods sharing platforms are user-friendly, socially neutral and hassle-free environments. People who use these are more in control of the virtual shopping or shared ownership experience than they are in a physical retail store.” What’s more, Trent adds that people who happen to own their own jewels and watches can also benefit from leasing them to platforms such as Covett to earn income from them while they wear other pieces. “Let’s say you have ten pairs of earrings or own four watches,” Trent ventures. “You can only wear one pair of earrings or wear one watch at a time. Many people love the idea of gaining some economic benefits from pieces in their collections by sharing them.”
Along with the phenomenal sea change in shared jewellery and watch ownership is the parallel rise of luxury resale online. Bain & Company and the Bain Altagamma 2020 Worldwide Luxury Market Monitor reported that in 2020, online luxury resale figures doubled in 2020 and are on track to comprise more than 30 percent of the retail market by 2025. While market researchers estimate that online resale luxury figures will add up to $26 billion in 2022, 2024 figures are projected to be $45 billion. 2026’s haul is projected at $60 billion and 2028 is estimated to reach $68 billion. What all of these figures add up to is millions of people enjoying, repurposing and repeating luxury goods.
At Covett they are surfing the waves of active access and shared ownership with their community of Covettists. They invite you to join so that you, too, can enjoy wide access to the precious design-driven jewellery and prestige watches in the Covett Vault. Along with insuring all their goods, they clean and sanitize them before and after each rental period as well as deliver them and pick them up. Their staff is ready to answer your questions and resolve any problems that arise while you are borrowing their pieces for a set period of time. Likewise, if the spirit moves you, consign one or more your pieces with Covett so that others can share the pleasure of your treasured jewels, while you earn income from them. Welcome to the world of design-driven fine jewellery and watches that adorn you with maximum style, ease and zero hassles.
Kyle Roderick is covers design-driven, limited edition jewellery and important timepieces in Forbes magazine and is the Founder / Editor-in-Chief at BIJOUXreview.com.
