GemLightBox: Digital technology is at the core of significant change in many areas of our lives, and needless to say, it has made its way into transforming the jewellery industry.
Jewellery is highly visual. Whether it’s a 5 carat Kashmir blue sapphire, an antique diamond ring or a tourmaline crystal from Tanzania, gems and jewellery photography is a notoriously difficult process. Gemstones are highly-reflective, commonly small and coloured stones don’t appear as vibrant as they are in reality. As the jewellery industry inevitably surges towards a digital age, it is becoming more and more vital to build a catalogue of visually captivating images and videos to attract consumers.
Online retailers and jewellers are increasingly becoming more empowered by new technologies and web applications. We caught up with the Picup Media© GemLightbox Founder, William Chu at the Jewellery Trade Center, Bangkok. The GemLightbox is the world’s first jewellery light box that enables anyone to capture studio quality photos and videos with nothing more than a smart phone.
- Can you introduce us to your background and what led you to the digital jewellery industry?
William Chu: I was born in South Africa, grew up in Australia and my parents are from Hong Kong. Before I entered into the digital world of jewellery, I was a trained goldsmith and bench diamond jeweller for over 10 years based between Sydney and Hong Kong. I graduated at UTS Business School and started my career as a consultant in the tech industry before I started Picup Media, a jewellery media company.
2. How was the GemLightbox born? Tell us a little bit about this.
William Chu: I was keen to bring together my jewellery background and technology. Picup Media, founded in 2014, began as a graphics company specialising in retouching jewellery photography. In a short span of two years, we grew our client base to over 5000 jewellers. We realised there was a relentless demand for photo editing in the market, however, many clients were sending us blurry images for retouching. We tried to find a working lightbox solution in the market for them and none worked. There was no universal light box in the market that could create the same consistency and quality. The GemLightbox started by solving an internal problem in our company. Today, this has helped our business as more and more clients need help in traversing the digital landscape.
3. GemLightbox recently exhibited at the HK show in June. What was the overall reception of this?
William Chu: We ran a special operations with UBM for the Hong Kong Gems & Jewellery Fair in June. New to the fair this year was a designated IT Solutions zone, an area that provided innovative software and technology for the jewellery industry. Our goal was to capture jewellery images and videos for every exhibitor at the show. We had twenty light boxes on trolleys and thirty people going around the show taking 360 degree images. In total 15,000 images & videos were taken over the 4 days!
4. How do you think this will redefine and change the global jewellery industry?
William Chu: Picup Media believes in the future of the digital world. GemLightbox is simple to use, provides the applications tools, equipment, lighting and access for everyone. With just one click, you’re connected to the rest of the world. Perfecting images and video is so important in today’s digital era that it can ultimately alter the viewer’s user experience and appreciation of the gemstone. Over 75% of online sales are lost due to poor jewellery retouching and photography. We’ve developed a standardised method to capture gemstones and jewellery and reveal their true beauty. Afterwards, It’s up to the viewer how they decide to look at the stone!
Also, I think there will be an increasing demand and a new trend for a 360-degree product view capability that enables consumers to make purchase decisions. There are so many opportunities to leverage existing technologies to make your jewellery product videos available in 360 and we are constantly devising new creative ways to alter the visual presentation of products.
5. Picup Media has been shortlisted in the JNA Honouree list and you’re also nominated for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the JNA awards. How do you feel?
William Chu: JNA Awards has been a leading platform recognising and encouraging excellence, innovation and best practices in the international jewellery and gemstone industry. It’s been an honour and a true pleasure for us to be nominated for one of the most prestigious and well-recognised industry awards in Asia. An initiative like the JNA Awards is important to Picup Media and the jewellery industry as it offers exposure and opportunities to jewellery businesses like us. It drives industry players to think out of the box, and continue to explore our creative sides which helps improve the industry standard for the benefit of the jewellery community. We share a strong commitment to further promote and drive the industry towards excellence through innovation, technology and the best digital practices.
6. How would you describe GemLightbox in 3 words? William Chu: Picup Media is based on three concrete values – Integrity, Continuous Improvement and Simplicity. The GemLightbox emerged from these values. We created a genuine working solution that targets and solves a real issue. It was created with a future in mind so it’s flexible and can adapt to future changes without being complicated. It’s also simple and functional, which allows jewellers to capture studio-quality images in just one click.
7. Where in the world is GemLightbox used?
William Chu: We work with more than 5000 jewellers worldwide from Australia, Hong Kong, India to Europe and the USA. Our partners in Europe are building a whole wave of interest in the GemLightbox. They are true fans of this product and share the same energy and vision that we have.
8. What is your vision with Picup Media?
William Chu: We want to build a digital jewellery world and spearhead a digital movement. We believe that in the future everything can be traded online. To truly grasp the attention of the millennial generation and their consumers, more and more jewellery retailers are adopting e-commerce practices and realising the importance of perfecting visual images and videos. The key concepts of what we wanted to achieve sprouted from our customers and our passion to provide solutions for industry traders.
We had a range of specialists involved in developing the GemLightbox, from lighting to plastic engineering specialists. The GemLightbox was designed with a future in mind – parts are removable and can be developed with additional slots.
9. What made you come to Bangkok?
William Chu: Bangkok is the world’s center for gems and jewellery brimming with bright opportunities and development. We want to provide our knowledge and propel Bangkok as the next digital gem hub. This place is the source of the trade and almost every gemstone passes through this bustling city. It will be great to provide state of the art technology and e-commerce education to help industry players leverage new technologies, applications and to develop services to enhance their competitiveness. Bangkok has all the foundations and infrastructure to become a major digital gem hub; it will be remarkably better with the suitable technologically-driven tools and services.
