www.french-spirit.com is a new Internet portal launched at the end of last year to promote French jewellery design. The brainchild of Sylvie Chapuzet, who has 20 years' experience as a jewellery designer and manufacturer, the site aims to bring French jewellery to a larger market.
“Three years ago, a few manufacturers and retailers, including myself, realised that we would have to regroup professionally to reach the international market available through the Internet,” explains Chapuzet.
At the launch, there were 20 designers involved in the project, including Alan Boite, Alain Clozeau, Bellon, De Percin, Garel creations and Louis FÉraud. Among the 20 or so retail stores taking part is the Parisian firm of Capet. However, Chapuzet pointed out that there is room for 30 more in each category.
Chapuzet acknowledges that it faces considerable competition with some 10,000 jewellery sites already listed on the French search engine, Voila. However, the group has done its homework and calculates that 85% of users or “internauts” visit a new site having gone through a portal.
According to Chapuzet, the companies involved in the project are aiming at two targets: the general public and other companies in the French jewellery business. The general public are categorised into three sections, the first being French consumers: “We are offering them a range of 1,300 items of jewellery and a cultural library of facts. Our organisation aims at leading internauts to retailers, because, for the moment, we are not selling jewellery on the Net.”
The second target audience is foreign consumers: “We are offering them the widest range of jewellery representative of the French style; a map of France showing where they can find the best 50 jewellers; and all the other information translated into English.” The third group is the press, which will be catered for with articles and photos.

From The Basel Magazine, January 2001