Name of your website?NOK 'EM DED jewelry design
Your name?
Teresa Khongtham
Your Location (city, etc)
Chiang Mai
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We are an exclusive wholesale jewelry business and offer you an exclusive designer range of stone and silver jewelry.
Our stone collection is designed and handmade by us and is rich in quality and high standard craftsmanship. Our designs are mostly 'one-off original pieces' therefore making each piece unique.
Our silver collection is in a class of its own. Each piece is carefully created by hand from pure silver by the hill tribes of northern Thailand and is also fused with our designs. Their work entails various symbols and designs that give it great character and also makes it unique.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
We are now in our 6th year of business. I spent 5 years on the road visiting our retailers Australia wide. My Thai husband & I wanted to slow down on travelling, stay full time in Chiang Mai, Thailand & start a family.
We also wanted to reach a wider audience and go global. We felt the website could help us achieve that.
When did you launch your first website?
July 2007
How did you decide on a name for your website?
It has always been our business name. Our business name incorporates my husband's name in it with a slang phrase.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Our range is special because it is different, setting us aside from that of others.
Both our stone and silver collections offer a full and extensive range. The styles range from simple & chic to elegant, classic & contemporary which starts from low end and extends to high end gallery pieces.
Materials used in our designs include a wide variety of precious and semi-precious gemstones, pearls, coral, shell, glass and silver originating from all over the world.
There is something to suit everyone!
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To be supplying our exclusive designs worldwide and have our jewelry worn on the catwalks.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I believe in the motto 'you get what you give'. I have always given 200% to anything I have done in all aspects. My customers appreciate the extra effort & time I go to for customer service which in turn reflects back to us succesfully.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Link it to retail sales that would also have a password log in as the wholesale site does. This enables us to keep our designs exclusive.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes. We have very capable staff both in Thailand & Australia.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Web developers not wanting to complete work without more money. Not enough pre-planning done by web developers. This is our second website, the first was full of bad coding, error warnings & malfunctioning. We lost a lot of time & money down the drain. This site is much better but still room for improvement.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Not enough traffic due to not being informed about the importance of SEO marketing.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Google and other search engines
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
There is still a lot of work involved to maintain a website. I had not not expected it to be so much. I was dissapointed that we were not making sufficient sales initially. This was due to not enough SEO marketing.
How long have you run the site already?
7 months so far.
Will you still provide offline showings and sales?
Yes. We are always available here in Chiang Mai for personal showings to existing or potential international buyers. To provide greater convenience, we offer private hotel jewelry showings and all orders will be shipped for our clients. Our staff in Australia will maintain in store visits and showings.
We feel it is still important for our customers to have the personal contact with us & our products. Photos sometimes can not give as much justice as seeing the real thing up close & personal. This is especially important for new clients. Once they have seen our high standard of quality they can feel confident to continue buying from our online catalogue/website. We have customers that buy from our website & also come to visit us in Chiang Mai annually.
What is your website address?
NOK 'EM DED jewelry design
