Shah Luxury Is Marrying Diamonds and Tech

Shah Luxury is, in many ways, like the all the other 100-plus jewelry manufacturers in Mumbai’s SEEPZ special economic zone. However, the company, which has operations in India and New York, distinguishes itself from its peers by adapting mass technologies from other industries to produce, personalize and distribute its jewels to retailers and consumers.

“We draw inspiration from Lyft, Uber, Domino’s, Apple and others,” says Salil Shah, who manages the company with his younger brother, Neil. “We want to be able to use technology to democratize the experience of customers. You can go into a Levi’s store, and there’s a machine that measures you in, like, 20 different ways. Then you get a custom-made pair of jeans. Twenty or 30 years ago, this would have been impossible. But technology brings things like this to the masses. We believe very strongly in this.”

Shah Luxury specializes in luxury bridal and fashion jewelry. Its brands in the former category include Carizza, Promezza and Carizza Boutique, while its luxury fashion collections include LeCirque, Essentials and SL Boutique.

‘From the ground up’

The two brothers are able to manage the company’s development despite being legally blind. They credit their business education — they both attended prestigious business colleges in the US — as well as their curiosity about technology. They also credit their father, Natwar Shah, who founded the business more than 40 years ago.

Today, the company employs approximately 575 people, of whom 525 work in the manufacturing operation in India. The New York office is responsible for sales, marketing, fulfillment, and handling local manufacturing and repair. The jeweler is also involved in diamond sourcing. Beyond that, it receives and processes customer merchandise — measuring stones for remounts, for instance, or 3D-scanning rings.
“Our manufacturing process is built from the ground up for individual personalization. We have built tech into both our internal operations [and] the consumer experience,” says Salil. Tools they use range “from virtual try-ons to holograms. We believe this combination of capability and technology creates an experience that you cannot find anywhere else.”

Building bridges

The brothers’ emphasis on technology and customization is perhaps most apparent in its partnership with retailer Ben Bridge Jeweler. Together, they produce a customized bridal collection called Bella Ponte — Italian for “beautiful bridge.” Through this program, Ben Bridge customers can create a bridal ring using a series of 10 parameters, including metal type, gem choice and style. There are also opportunities to work with the jeweler and manufacturer for a more personalized experience.

“The Bella Ponte collection is in-store” for customers to shop, Salil says. “[Ben Bridge’s store teams] can also interact with our team daily using a custom-built software portal. They can do a lot of things from this software: marrying center stones and settings, setting individual orders, pricing for remounts, sending goods, seeing past jobs, and seeing status updates for current jobs.”

Going a step further, the company can create a 3D hologram of the customized ring, making it appear on top of the customer’s smartphone. To do so, it uses a cone-shaped plastic holder that attaches to the phone, and a ring-shaped “seed” that goes inside the cone.

A beautiful partnership

The Shah brothers and Ben Bridge CEO Lisa Bridge first met in 2018 at a trade show.

“Originally, they caught our eye because they had some beautiful jewelry,” says Bridge. “As we looked to create what we wanted [in terms of] the experience and the quality of jewelry, and in the customization ability, we felt like we had good synergy with Shah.”

She also saw other qualities that encouraged her to partner with the company: “They’re wonderfully aligned with our values. They care for their people and the community. They have a desire to innovate and push boundaries in technology, and they are lovely people.”

Main image: Hologram attachment for a smartphone. (Shah Luxury)

This article is from the July-August 2024 issue of Rapaport Magazine. View other articles here.