Mejuri’s Noura Sakkijha targets female shoppers as it competes with larger players

Unlike many direct-to-consumer brand founders, Noura Sakkijha tends to stay off of her personal social media. Despite having more than 5,000 followers on Instagram, you won’t find any posts on her page. That’s not the case for the account of Mejuri, her DTC jewelry brand, however. With 1.2 million followers and near-daily posts, the Toronto-based company has become a destination in its own right for today’s digital window-shoppers. And many fans do more than just window-shop: With 24 stores and counting, the company employs a team of close to 600 people. “It’s very surprising, but I’m very, very inactive on social media,” Sakkijha, 38, said. “I expend a lot of my energy at work and I focus a lot of my energy on Mejuri’s social media, and not necessarily mine,” she continued. Sakkijha has been building Mejuri for roughly a decade, after studying engineering in Jordan before moving to Canada and working in consulting. “I’m a third generation in my family to work in jewelry—I always say it is kind of very expected of me to be in this industry,” she said. Despite that sense of family tradition, she built Mejuri—the name purposefully doesn’t have a meaning—because she wanted to create a new kind of jewelry brand, one with a significant marketing twist: It’s fine jewelry marketed to women, rather than men. Mejuri does its own sourcing, working with manufacturers around the world. Typically for jewelry brands, “whether it's a small brand or a big brand, it’s targeted for men to buy for women,” Sakkijha said. This rings true in the taglines of long-established players such as Jared’s “He went to Jared,” and Kay’s “Every kiss begins with Kay.” Mejuri’s “Buy yourself the damn diamond” post on Instagram ahead of Valentine’s Day is a fresh message that taps into female empowerment. Celebrities from Selena Gomez to Ariana Grande have recently been spotted wearing the brand. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? I would have to pick my father, he passed away two years ago. He was a huge influence in what I’m doing today. Even, quite frankly, the way he dealt with his customers: I always tell our team, the way that he’s been very transparent with his customers about quality, about sources ... even though it's a much smaller scale, it was just sort of the seeds of how I think about the industry and customer care. He’s highly influential in my life. And so he’s absolutely top of my list. What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis? I mainly use Instagram, and I use it for inspiration, I use it to follow other entrepreneurs, women who are doing great things. That would probably be my No. 1—I’m very inactive on all other social media platforms. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. What was the last show you binge-watched? My guilty pleasure is reality TV. I’ve been watching “Real Housewives” because [of] Jenna Lyons—I absolutely love her. We had a collaboration with her a couple of years ago and I got to know her a little bit, and she’s such a vibrant personality, really charming; and just watching her on the show, it’s great. At what age do you hope to retire? I honestly have never thought about that. I think I’m really enjoying and loving what I’m doing—I haven’t even begun to think about it. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

Mejuri’s Noura Sakkijha targets female shoppers as it competes with larger players

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