Data Suppliers: Index Feedback

We have been actively marketing on social media channels since 2004, and believe that Social Media is one of the most important advertising channels used today. We use Instagram mainly for brand awareness and targeted marketing.

We never had an issue with Instagram because we use it more for brand awareness. We have never made our exact stone specifications known across Instagram or any social media platform, we prefer that a client contacts us directly. So to answer the question, maybe too much information is being revealed.

It’s a great media channel, there is very little text, just images, and videos, so everybody wins. People realize that mutual communication via images and videos is more suitable to the generation at the center stage of commerce than it was 5 years ago. You can put a lot of content in these images, we try to bring the message of our stones across Instagram.

The internet is an open showcase where you see all merchandise on the face of the earth. Everything is open to everybody, so there is no such thing as a ‘diamond dealer, no such thing as a ‘wholesaler’, no such thing as, ‘private’. These distinctions are disappearing completely, there are already two groups of people, buyers, and sellers.
The people who started this tremendous situation have let the ‘genie out of the bottle’ and it can’t be put back again, whether it be diamonds or anything else, because it’s on the internet, it’s on Instagram. Those who think that they shouldn’t put their goods on the internet are living in a ‘fantasy land’. If you don’t publish and just hide it, you’re wasting your time. You can’t sell your stones without being visible.

We are pretty active on Instagram, my wife started it about 2 or 3 years ago, and the goal is to reach as many people as possible. We have a lot of followers and intend to increase it even more; we’re going to hire somebody to make it even better.

Well, the wholesalers have a point, you don’t advertise or publicize every stone that you buy from dealers, especially from Argyle, and put it on Instagram. The retailers, those who are interested to work on the stones, will not want to do it, and for obvious reason.
The people who put these goods on Instagram are the ones that really put the exact weight and equip them. They don’t put the price obviously, well maybe some of them do, and I haven’t seen them. Unfortunately, I truly don’t have time to follow Instagram, my wife does, but I think it’s not wise to do that. You limit your channels of distribution and you limit your ability to sell to a segment of the market that is very important. This is why when we post on Instagram we don’t put the weight exactly, just approximately, and I don’t put the important pieces. You have to protect and defend your customers.

The fact that the swatch group canceled this year reflects mainly the stiff approach of the Basel management. As for the impact it may have on the traffic, there will be some effect of the general attendance but I don’t think it will effect the Diamond section.

I think De Beers made a very smart strategic move. Sometimes, the only way to control a threat is owning it.
Lab grown diamonds that were sold in jewelry stores for 30% less than natural diamonds (I saw a 1 carat D, IF lab-grown diamonds sold for $7500 in a store in LA), now these man made crystals will be sold at flat price of only $800 per carat regardless if they are pink, blue or colorless. This price category will position all lab grown diamonds at the absolute bottom of the luxury food chain. In addition De Beers are the first to call them by their real name:”lab-grown diamonds” and declare they don’t need a GIA report as they are not rare.

Their biggest achievement is that all the equity funds that were on the verge of investing billions of dollars to develop this niche to become the next affordable luxury product, will have to change their excel sheets and recalculate their ROI all over as their selling price dropped by thousands of percent.
As I see it, these equity funds will back-out from this investment.

De Beers achieved exactly what the industry needed. The Lab grown diamond category will shrink and go back to where it belongs- sooner than you think these stones will be sold at Shopping Malls stands next to Svarovsky crystals.

The discontinuation of The Swatch Group at Baselworld will have no real effect on the diamond industry or the visitors at the show who are looking for diamonds. The significance of the diamond industry at Baselworld is marginal, not just for the participants in the industry, but also for the exhibitors that are not as vibrant [as they used to be], so no real diamond buyer is going to visit the Baselworld show. There are two reasons: First, the show organizers priced out the show from the markets and second, the prices of the city have risen to such exorbitant rates that it’s no longer economically feasible to attend. The diamond and jewelry industries will eventually eliminate trade shows altogether because these shows have lost material significance over the years, due to the Internet. Everyone is always looking for buyers and suppliers on the Internet, so Baselworld has no effect on the industry whatsoever. Baselworld was dead already a long time ago. It’s outpriced and completely useless.

It was a classic case of careless rebranding for De Beers, who is diluting its own brand. All of the upward sophistication of killing corporate entities in this industry and selling these goods for cheaper will cause more harm to the diamond brand than to De Beers’ own brand, and they will not benefit. Buyers who are for real will never buy an artificial, manmade diamond. It was a careless and silly move – you can dress it up the way you want, but it won’t help. It will not hurt the diamond industry in the long-term, but in the short-term it will hurt mostly De Beers’ own brand. Also, the claim that manmade diamonds cause less harm to the environment than mined diamonds is untrue; the fact is that to make a 1 ct manmade diamond, it takes about 10 times as much energy than to mine a diamond in Africa. It’s a gimmick, but gimmicks usually don’t last.

The departure of the Swatch Group will affect not just the diamond buyers, it will affect the Baselworld fair as a whole. Baselworld has been based on the presence of three giants that generated the flow of customers and caught the industry's attention internationally. The Swatch Group is one of those three giants, and their departure emphasizes the fact that something is problematic with Baselworld. For the past three years, exhibitors and visitors alike have been expressing concerns to the organisers about the pricing of the exhibition, the infrastructure of the city (hotels, restaurants, entertainment, etc.), the location of Hall 3 (Hall of Elements), and so on. Baselworld management never addressed those concerns. While all the other watches and jewellery shows in the world have been expanding, over the past three years, Baselworld has lost its dimension and glory with the number of exhibitors being reduced by more than 50 percent. It is not a surprise that Baselworld's prior management has been recently replaced and that the new team is trying to recapture the lost momentum. The departure of Swatch is a consequence of Baselworld's poor management and its departure will directly affect diamond buyers by reducing the importance of the fair and the attraction of newcomers.

De Beers’ strategy in launching lab-grown diamonds is motivated by internal reasons that only their management can respond to. De Beers has long lost its DNA as a diamond industry leader and their action to launch lab-grown diamonds was a disappointment to the entire diamond industry. DeBeers' action in this case is not the main issue. The real issue here is the development of the lab-grown diamond industry. I believe that lab-grown diamonds will meet the needs of a new population that has never purchased a natural diamond before, or that was very price sensitive to the value of natural diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds create a new market segment and if anything they will have a positive impact by making natural diamonds more desirable. In the past, every time man has tried to synthesize or treat a gemstone (such as rubies, sapphires or emeralds), the demand for the natural product expanded and its price increased. Therefore, I am confident that people will always want to purchase natural diamonds. However, I’m aware that our industry will have to embrace and respond to some serious environmental issues. It will have to invest massively in more responsible and sustainable ways of extracting diamonds and running the diamond business. This is the real issue that we have to address in order for jewellery customers to regain confidence in our industry and to secure the future generations’ interest in the hardest, rarest and most valuable natural element on Earth.

I think it’s a question of supply and demand. There has been tremendous growth in demand for very special and unique items and the supply for that size category is really scarce. With all the information out there, the market is becoming aware of this, and the prices are going up. Furthermore, if you get a stone that is 2 or 3 carats with a significant per carat price, it will be far less expensive than buying a stone at a 5 or 6 carat size. It’s a question of a total dollar sum, as well.

Yes, and it’s particularly noticeable in special stones, which are usually non-radiant cuts. Moreover, I was the owner of the Fancy Vivid Yellow 30 carat stone that was recently auctioned by Sotheby’s, and I’ve been looking to replace it – but when I look around in the market for something comparable, such as a yellow stone in the 15-20 carat range, there’s nothing around. Or, if there is something desirable in the market, the asking price will be higher than anticipated.

The prices are going up because of low supply. [For these sizes], there are usually only one or two diamonds available in the market at a time. That’s why the prices have risen.

Yes. I see increased demand for yellows, mostly for VS and above, in markets across Asia, the U.S. and Europe. The demand is rising and so are the prices, but the prices are not increasing at the same pace as the demand – they are still a bit low, considering how high the demand is. I also see an increase for yellows in the Fancy Light and Fancy color range, while Vivid Yellows are low in demand. The prices of Vivid Yellows have decreased significantly over the past few years.

The reason behind this price hike is a lack of fine goods: There isn’t enough merchandise in the market. I also think there’s a better future for the 2 carat category, as they are more affordable than larger size stones.

Yes, 100 percent. There’s definitely more activity than a year ago, and there’s also a higher demand for this category. It's also worth noting that shapes like radiants, emeralds & rounds are doing much better compared to the other shapes.