Golden Concept has earned over one million euros by selling high-end mobile phones and mobile accessories to customers worldwide.
Malmö-based startup was founded in 2015 by Puia Shamsossadati, an Instagram influencer with over 1.8 million subscribers. Puia has been active on social media since 2013, and after getting to know other people with large audiences, and it was not long before offers to market different products began to roll in. One day, there was a company that wanted him to market a high-priced mobile phone.
“I worked as an industrial designer and had worked with cell phones for quite some time. In addition, I had previously run the e-commerce Mobilgiganten. So then I got the idea that I could do this myself”, Puia said to Ehandel.se.
The founder has shared that there was no doubt as to how marketing would go – he had contacted the celebrities among his followers, and they began promoting the products.
“What was so fun was that one phone cost ca. €5 000, and it was a brand that had not existed before. But despite that, orders began to roll in”, Puia continues.
The exclusive mobile phones are made of gold or silver, and in some cases are decorated with diamonds. To invest in highly-valued products like this, one may need to contact professionals such as a gold bullion dealer. The cost varies – there is currently at least one model that costs well over €20 000. Such products are attractive to royalty, artists, famous football players and other customers from approximately 150 countries. Main markets are located in the USA, India, the UAE and Qatar.
Up until summer of 2019, Golden Concept was a side project of Puia Shamsossadati, but later he decided to fully invest in his e-commerce. Currently the team consists of five employees and two consultants.
However, due to the prices of the phones, the target consumer group has been pretty limited.
“When those who had the mobiles uploaded pictures of them in their channels, a large number of visitors came to the site but few chose to place an order. There was a lot of window shopping”, Puia said in the interview with Ehandel.se.
As a result, in 2018 the startup also began to sell phone and AirPods cases, which are sold for ca. €100 or more, depending on the model. The customer has the opportunity to choose his own engraving and make his product individually customized.
In 2020, Golden Concept’s purpose is to grow between 40 and 50 percent. The company also plans to further promote their products in physical stores. Today they have collaborations with the London department store Harrods, as well as with a handful of stores in the UAE and Qatar, but the idea is that the network of resellers will expand.
However, despite the high product prices, and thanks to all the investments, Golden Concept has managed to be profitable in the last year.
