Jennifer Margolin and her business partner, Sasha Dennig, saw the need to bring in homeware brands from Europe, South America, and more to the Asian market after entertaining extensively at home over the pandemic.
SEE ALSO: Unspun wants to revolutionise denim manufacturing and retail
The idea came to fruition in 2022 as the online marketplace Belevivi, which recently expanded offline with a store in Hong Kong’s Central district. Located on Mee Lun Street, a striking royal blue facade offers a window into a selection of luxury home gifts, dinnerware, and decorative objects from a variety of brands, including Margolin’s own Bydeau label.
Margolin speaks with Retail in Asia to share their plans and aspirations for Belevivi.
RiA: Please share how the idea of Belevivi came about.
Jennifer Margolin: It has always been a struggle to find stylish, unique home décor items here in Hong Kong, but being able to travel you could always find things to bring back with you in Hong Kong – either from your summer holidays or your favourite homeware store back “home.”
[In] the last few years when we weren’t able to travel, it was extremely evident how much we lacked options of finding beautiful, quality homeware in Hong Kong. As more people were entertaining at home during this time and looking for home décor and tableware items, that’s where my business partner, Sasha Dennig, and I saw a hole in the market.
RiA: Can you describe the gap that you are hoping to fill with Belevivi?
Margolin: Here in Hong Kong there are very few options for homeware and the price range is a huge variance. We wanted to create a curated online marketplace where one can browse and shop beautiful, luxurious products, handpicked by our curators to ensure they no longer miss out on finding just the right thing for them. With Belevivi we are connecting artisan and heritage brands and independent boutiques to a wider global customer base they wouldn’t otherwise have access to through our marketplace platform.
RiA: When selecting your vendors and products, what are some things that you keep in mind?
Margolin: We look for brands and vendors that are not readily available here in SE Asia. Craftsmanship and quality of products are important factors when approving vendors. There are many brands throughout Europe, South American, India, etc. that produce beautiful products, some are generational family owned businesses, but have not managed to have a presence in Asia yet. Imagine when you travel and wander the streets shopping and find a small boutique with amazing products, we wanted to duplicate that experience so you can can find amazing products from quality brands from the comfort of you home.
RiA: You recently opened a brick and mortar store in Hong Kong – what made you want to do a combination of e-commerce and physical retail?
Margolin: We opened a showroom in Central where we encourage customers to browse the collections of our vendors in person, see the quality or set a table if you are debating between two different place settings. We also will host events to introduce our vendors, offer workshops, have dedicated vendor specific pop-ups and also offer an in-person location so people in Hong Kong can come in and see samples of some of the items we offer on Belevivi.
SEE ALSO: Vietnamese chocolatier Marou sets sights on cafe concept’s regional expansion
RiA: What’s next for Belevivi and how do you plan to expand your business?
Margolin: We are currently working on expanding our shipping options to Singapore, Dubai and the United States by the end of the year. There will be more events in our showroom in Hong Kong in the upcoming months and we will continue adding new vendors to our site.