| |
 |
| |
The modern way to order diamond rings. |
Bloves.com, China's first direct sales website for diamond rings, started a venture in Changsha and opened a store on Huangxing Road pedestrian street last October. It's seen as representing a new stage for the Mainland's online shopping experience, with such expensive products available on the Internet.
Ironically, as a new mode of consumption, online shopping for diamonds not only cuts prices by nearly half but allows customers to order loose stones for making rings in their favourite designs.
Compared with traditional diamond marketing, Bloves.com introduced a novel idea. On 22 October, it opened its store at a shopping centre, smaller than the average jewellery store, with its modern setup and a computer monitor on top of every counter.
The setup reminded customers that it was one of the diamond stores shown in the Hong Kong TV drama Gem of Life.
According to the store manager, online diamond ring sales operate on the "e-commerce platform + store + call centre" model.
Online diamond ring sales do not involve the complicated sales procedures of traditional jewellery stores and the relatively small inventory pressure helps speed up cash turnover. Online sales offer prices lower than at traditional jewellery stores by half and allow people to buy diamonds without leaving their home.
Diamonds sold on Bloves.com are cut by experts at the famous diamond cutting centres in Antwerp and New York. All stones have to go through independent quality appraisal and certification to ensure that their quality, colour, purity and cutting techniques are up to standard.
They also come with certificates issued by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the Hoge Raad voor Diamant (HRD) of Belgium or International Gemological Institute (IGI). These can be double checked on the official websites of these organisations. Bloves.com opened a store in Changsha to give customers the experience of seeing the real objects and trying them on. The store also offers customers free cleaning and maintenance service, annual safety check by experts as well as services like engraving, resizing, restyling, restoration, and replacement of small stones with bigger ones.
Choice of loose stones
As a totally new mode of business introduced into Changsha, Bloves.com makes a break from the traditional practice of setting the price of diamond rings as a whole by quoting separate prices for diamonds and bases, thus making pricing more transparent to customers.
According to the brand manager, the online marketing of diamonds shortens the industry chain and makes global diamond information open to the public. Consumers can check the "4Cs" (carat, colour, clarity and cut) of each piece of diamond online. For the bases, prices are quoted on the basis of the price of gold, wear and tear, and separate workmanship fee.
In the past, the people of Changsha had to go to Shanghai, Hong Kong and other big cities if they want to order a diamond ring of their own design. Now they can order loose stones from Bloves.com and have them made according to their own design. This takes between 12 days and one month.
from Zhou Yilei, Wuhan Office
