Jumana Younis Tells Us About the E-commerce Space and COVID-19

Jumana Younis of jubilya.com and sixkros.com tells us about European watches and men’s collections.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?  

Jumana Younis: We are fine, and we all hope that soon the world will recover and we will be enjoying the fresh air without wearing the masks.

Tell us about you, your career, how you joined jubilya.com, and sixkros.com.

Jumana Younis: I am the CEO of two online shops: sixkros.com and jubilya.com, under the direction of my teacher and principal, Kamil Rogalinski.

I came to the company in 2018, and I started working in customer service. My main role was answering customers their questions about our products and assisting them with their orders.

Jubilya.com is a shop for women, and we specialize in selling European watches. One of the most famous brands we have is Gino Rossi, which is still unknown here, and we are the only company authorized to re-sell them here in the United Arab Emirates.

We also have some accessories with Svarovski crystals. Sixkros.com is our shop for men, where we offer a collection of gadgets, accessories, watches, and iPhone cases that every man needs.

How do jubilya.com and sixkros.com innovate? 

Jumana Younis: In an e-commerce space, we are constantly looking for new ways to reach our customers, and we always ask them for feedback to know how to expand our product base to make their lives better. We are integrating new payment solutions like Spotii, which helps our customers to split the bill into installments and make the shopping experience better in these difficult times. 

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Jumana Younis: Coronavirus significantly affected our company, sales, and many other things. Our delivery partners stopped operating, demand for watches and other non-essential products dropped, borders were closed so that we couldn’t ship internationally. I remember that we reached a stage where we almost closed the company as the sale reached zero. I was tired mentally and practically, but we agreed that we must do something other than shut down the company, and here the story began.

First of all, we bought a product that was the best seller on the website. We started collaborating with other online shops, expanding our customer base. We called them, we emailed them, and we found a few really amazing partners. Due to mutual cooperation, their customers benefited from their products as well as our customers benefited from their products. We changed the way we distribute our products on the market on top of standard marketing activities that we carry out on a daily basis. We stayed like that until now. I can say that the days the sale is good, and sometimes I say that we are still affected by the Corona pandemic.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned? 

Jumana Younis: We had to make a lot of difficult choices in the past. When the borders were closed, our delivery partners failed, and the business was close to shutting down, we all sat together and carefully considered our next steps. One of the best choices we made was not to give up and continue our operations with the hope that everything will be good in the end. 

What specific tools, software, and management skills are helping you navigate the crisis?

Jumana Younis: For me personally, I must say I learned a lot from these hard days. My manager Kamil was the first and great lesson that I can tell you about. He has always supported us and discussed all the ideas that can help us grow our websites. Every day he was a great support, and he was the first manager who, despite all the setbacks, never considered scaling down the business. He always urged us to work as a team. We even celebrated birthdays together, sometimes remotely, sometimes in person but keeping the social distancing, and it really helped us stay strong as a team.

He made us overcome problems with laughter and always assured us that everything will be fine. He was the motivation that helped us to always do more and not to lose hope!

As for the software, we mostly use our website backend, but we also have a customized admin system that helps us process our orders, manage stock and help our customers track their orders.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game? 

Jumana Younis: On both websites, we focus on items that are not available on the market, so it is difficult to say who our competitors are. As I mentioned before, we are the only re-seller of the Gino Rossi brand, Adexe, and unique products like our Drum Roll watch, so we are not trying to compete with those. We also have a range of products available in other online shops, but we are not trying to compete on the price. We offer amazing customer service, including same-day delivery in Abu Dhabi.

Your final thoughts?

Jumana Younis: My final thought is that if you want to succeed in life, you have to cut the distractions and really focus on something. Life is not easy, but we need to learn from our mistakes and failures and become better every day. Success will come. It is just a matter of time. 

Your website?

https://jubilya.com

https://www.sixkros.com