Give Your Jewellery A Much Needed Face-lift With Ring Reno

Searching for your next favourite necklace or ring? It’s probably in your jewellery box! Toronto -based Ring Reno studio takes your forgotten diamond earring or a broken gold necklace and turns it into a brand new jewellery piece, saving you time and money. Through the ShopHERE Program Powered by Google, Ring Reno is now online and ready to Reno-vate your jewellery. 

Julie and Michael are the founders of Ring Reno, and the magicians behind the statement piece transformations. “The idea for Ring Reno was inspired by the one thing people always ask us when they find out we are jewellers. Can I turn my old jewellery into something new?” said Michael. The entrepreneurs have been making jewellery for over 25 years and two years ago they travelled to Antwerp, Belgium to become Certified Diamond Setters, which changed their business. In general, jewellers have to send their pieces out for setting but Julie and Michael can remove gemstones and re-set them in their own studio.

Julie and Michael call their approach “BYOD”- Bring Your Own Diamonds, as clients can easily curb-side drop-off their old jewellery pieces to a downtown Toronto location. While they renovate the chosen jewellery, a client can shop online for the design of a new piece or Julie and Michael can recommend them the best option. 

“People send us pictures of their jewellery and we help them choose a new design from our website. We then reset their diamonds into a new piece that they'll want to wear every day.” Customers can use a Ring Reno credit that they receive based on the recycled gold when shopping for a new design.

Ring Reno’s renovation model also reduces the detrimental effect of mining gold and gemstones on the environment. Instead, Julie and Michael focus on the 4Rs – Recycling, Restoring, Re-setting and Reviving of diamonds and gemstones. Ring Reno shot a great video explaining the process, check out the link here.

Before Ring Reno, Julie and Michael relied on word of mouth and trade shows to reach their customers but everything changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “Our business really halted in March when the lockdown started. We knew we needed to rethink how we find new clients and going online was the obvious first choice.” The ShopHERE Program turned out to be exactly what they needed as they started their e-commerce journey. “The help we received from Esha, [the eCommerce Coordinator] was instrumental in getting our website live. The store was built quickly and to high quality,” said Julie and Michael.

 “Esha took our initial sketches and brought them to life while also offering solutions whenever we had questions or changes to the site. It helps to have someone guide you through the process and keep you on track.”

When asked about their experience with setting up their store, Julie and Michael stated: “It was a fantastic experience and we've been recommending it to friends and colleagues. We really needed a hand getting our website launched and the ShopHERE Program came along at the exact right time!” The entrepreneurs also believe that a lot of small businesses can benefit from using the Program:

 “ShopHERE made going online easy and rewarding. It can seem overwhelming, but when you have someone guiding you through the process it can be quite painless.”

Since the launch of their online store Ring Reno was able to reach a whole new set of customers across Canada, and offer custom work without having to meet people in person.  Julie and Michael believe that the ‘new normal’ offers owners time to rethink their business and ways to reach new audiences. They also advise small businesses to use their time wisely while dealing with the COVID-19 situation: “We recently took an online course to learn about Facebook's Ads platform. Understanding how to reach new customers online and grow our sales has been a huge part of our transformation.” 

If you have a broken necklace you’d like to transform, check out Ring Reno’s new website. For small business owners who need a hand with their eCommerce journey, learn more about the ShopHERE guidelines.