Jewelry Market Trends | Diamonds Forever

Archive for Jewelry Market Trends

What Makes A Great Diamond Jeweler In San Diego

Friday, August 5th, 2011

When looking for jewelry, you only want the best. And in order to get the best jewelry, you need to find the best jeweler. There are a variety of jewelers out there, but they are not all created equally. Like most product manufacturers and sellers, some diamond jewelers are just better than others. So what makes a great diamond jeweler? Let’s find out.

1) Reputation

When it comes to selecting a great diamond jeweler the main thing to look for is reputation. Diamond jewelry can be quite expensive and is something that you will show off for years to come. So when it comes to selecting a jeweler, you want to make sure you select one that you can trust. If you think that you have found a great jeweler, check out some online customer reviews before you make your final purchase.

Chances are, if other people have had great experiences with them, you will too.

2) Customer service

Making a jewelry purchase can be a huge deal. For those purchasing an engagement or wedding ring, this could be one of the most important purchasing decisions of your life. Unfortunately, most of us don’t know all of the facts about diamonds. This is where a great jeweler comes in. Be sure to select a jeweler that goes out of their way to answer all of your questions, help you explore your options, and tell you everything you need to know about the diamond you are purchasing. If your jeweler is not knowledgeable, it may be time to look elsewhere.

3) Options

The jeweler that you select should provide you with a variety of options. Not every individual is the same, and when it comes to diamonds we all have different preferences. A great jeweler will be able to match the needs of anyone. Whether you are looking for male or female jewelry, unique designs, or custom services, your jeweler should be able to meet your needs.

4) Quality

When purchasing a diamond, you don’t want to compromise your quality. A higher quality diamond may cost more money, but it will be well worth it in the end. Be sure to choose a jeweler who never compromises their quality for price.

5) Addresses human rights policies

Once you have selected your diamond, be sure that it has a conflict-free diamond policy. As you probably already know, there are many social and environmental issues surrounding diamonds. In some countries, diamonds create huge human right issues. Always be sure that your diamond policy addresses these issues. If it does not, select a different jeweler.

6) Warranty policy

Finally, a great jeweler will provide you with a great warranty policy. High quality jewelry can be quite expensive, so if you should find any flaws or if anything should go wrong in the manufacturing process, you want to make sure that you can return or exchange it with no questions asked.

When it comes to the quality of your diamond jewelry, don’t let it be compromised by your jeweler. Use the 6 tips above to help you find the best jeweler around!

Categories : Diamonds In San Diego, Jewelers, Jewelry Market Trends

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Silver All the Rage at Recent Las Vegas Show

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

With the exceptionally high cost of gold today, many are turning to silver as a precious metal substitute by creating much bolder designs with higher price points for jewelry applications. With many retailers confirming the increasingly significant role that silver is playing in their display offerings, many are finding that even if the item is going to cost more, customers are still finding great value in these new silver offerings.

Speaking with the National Jeweler at a recent Las Vegas show, Michael Barlerin, the Director of Silver Promotion Service indicated that at the end of the show all of his expectations had been exceeded.

Indicating that the silver industry is very healthy in 2011 and that silver’s traditional values and characteristics have put it back into the spotlight, there have been bold new uses of silver in determining color palates, use with a range of diamonds and other gemstones, and using contrasting colors from white silver to oxidized black silver. These creative uses of silver proved to be very well accepted at the Las Vegas show.

During the Vegas show, five industry veterans discreetly scouted the show for new silver trends and found that the cultural aspects of silver stood tall. The current perception is that consumers are reacting very favorably to the use of white metals, with or without the inclusion of gemstones.

With silver’s innate beauty and comparatively more affordable price points in today’s market, it is a metal that is giving the new customer a reason to begin doing business with a jewelry store. With very uplifting results from the Vegas show, many believe that silver is the medium that will bring in the critical new younger customer into the store. Time will tell if silver will continue to be on the upswing.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/fashion/all/article_detail?id=26754

Categories : Jewelry Market Trends, Silver

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Will the Jewelry Industry Embrace Social Media?

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Scott Galloway, the head of L2 a digital think tank for luxury brands, when discussing the “Digital IQ” study released last fall offered very stern advice to those in the jewelry trades at the 2011 International Gemological Symposium.

Ranking prestigious brands based on their adoption and use of online tools; companies in the Watches Jewelry category ranked dead last of any category tracked in the study. Adding this pointed statement, “I hate Facebook,” Galloway went on to say that regardless of one’s personal feeling about social networks, failing to acknowledge that it is an exceptionally viable means for marketing today would just be folly.

With fashion brands topping the list in the “Digital IQ” survey in terms of innovation, Galloway related the fact that many of these firms are run by younger women. While implying that the leaders of the diamond, watches, and jewelry industries have their heads stuck in the 60′s thinking that social networking is done at the country club, he implied that they should maintain their reluctance to embrace Facebook and the new phenomena of social networking at their own peril. “Things are changing,” he said. “Fear is getting in the way of this industry acknowledging reality and just getting on with it.”

Galloway went on to present some very compelling facts about Facebook and other social networking vehicles. First, Facebook eats up around 12% of the total time that a person spends on the internet. Second, the number of Facebook users world-wide is expected to exceed one billion within the next year. Lastly, he presented a case where Facebook becomes the biggest access point to the internet within the next 36 months. Failure to recognize these facts by is to be done so clearly at your own risk.

Categories : Jewelry Market Trends, Media

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China Now Offering Graduate Gemologist Program

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

As the economy in China continues to grow (and grow!) the associated benefit of such a tremendous amount of economic activity is the ever growing consumerism capacity. With improved earning power, the Chinese people continue to reach out into non-traditional areas (remember when they were a communistic economy?).

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University will become the host for the very first on-campus Graduate Gemologist program being offered in China. The courses to be taught in Mandarin Chinese will begin in July 2011 at the Shanghai, China location of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Having offered lab classes in China for over a decade, with the first diamond grading lab classes being offered in Beijing in 1999, the GIA is excited about this first ever on-campus Graduate Gemologist program to be offered in China.

Expecting that the fast growing consumer markets in China will support an ever growing demand for diamonds and other precious stones and metals, the expectations for this market are up, up, and up. Enabling students to finish a Graduate Gemologist program will only help to support this growing segment in their economy. This program will support developing Graduate Gemologist at a much faster pace than the older means used of traveling lab classes in combination with distance learning.

With Shanghai regarded as being the most cosmopolitan cities in China with an exceptionally large consumer base, Seung-Hae Moon, managing Director of GIA Asia Pacific said, “The jewelry industry needs professionally trained GIA graduates, and we are committed to fostering that need.

That is the core tenant of our mission to protect the public’s trust in the jewelry throughout the world.” Developing a supply of qualified graduates capable of understanding the four C’s and able to accurately use gemological equipment to grade and identify gemstones is their first order of business.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/diamonds/all/article_detail?id=26780

Categories : Education, GIA Diamond Experts, Jewelry Market Trends

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Saying Wholesale While Charging Retail is a Recipe for Big Trouble

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) looks at claiming that you are selling at wholesale prices while charging retail as unfair and an illegitimate means of promoting your business; end of statement. Doing so can get you quickly into some real hot water. Most people know that since the dawn of the middleman, people have salivated at the notion of being able to buy at wholesale prices instead of retail prices.

Next to direct from the manufacturer, wholesale is the next best thing, so it is very tempting to just promote your products as being up for sale at deeply discounted prices that are “close to wholesale” when in reality you have done nothing of the sort.

One of the many ways that unscrupulous retailers work to promote these sales at what they claim to be wholesale prices is by raising their listed retail price so high that when they “discount it” it will appear to be at a wholesale price.

It will appear as if you are saving a ton of money when in reality you are not. The net purchase price is still at retail pricing when all is said and done. What these retailers fail to realize is that although they think they are just being shrewd businessmen, they are actually breaking the law.

The terms “wholesale” and “retail” have very specific definitions. FTC guidelines clearly specify that retailers should not advertise, by any means, a retail price as a wholesale price. The unfortunate reality is that some retailers just continue to ignore or are simply unaware of this FTC requirement.

The plain and simple truth is that regulators at the FTC are unfortunately too busy to catch every violator, so caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) is still a mainstay when it comes to participating as a consumer in the retail markets.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/majors/all/article_detail?id=26691

Categories : Jewelry Market Trends, Jewelry Stores

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Europeans Spend a Whole Day Every Month on the Internet

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

When looked at in the terms of days instead of hours, European’s, spending an average of 24.2 hours a month online constitutes one whole day a month being used up in this endeavor. That is noteworthy and a real indication of just how powerful the web has become in everyone’s lives. Some of the notable over achievers that were above average internet-addicted countries include:

The Netherlands at 31.3 hours (the equivalent of pulling another shift)
United Kingdom at 29.8 hours
Turkey at 29.3 hours
France at 24.9 hours

When looked at in different terms, the voracious European appetite for accessing information on the internet really begins to show up when looking at the number of page views that are generated by the Europeans. According to comScore, a whopping 2,462 pages are viewed every month by the average, yes that is average, European compared to a worldwide average of 1,963.

Exactly “what” people are looking at online is perhaps even more important than “how often” they are looking. The answer to this is that it appears as if the Europeans are spending a significant portion of their time being engaged with the social networking sites.

Looking at the Russian social networking site VKontakte one sees that this site ranked #1 for the highest average engagement in Europe. While spending an average 8.2 hours a month on this site (a 22% increase from the previous month) Europeans also spent a great deal of time on the Russian Mail.ru Group (ranked #2) at 4.9 hours and on Facebook (at #3) with an average of 4.9 hours a month.

Based on this information, expect advertisers to attempt to discern ways to increase their marketing presence on these social networking sites in the future.

Categories : Jewelry Market Trends

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Has Advertising on Mobile Apps Already Begun?

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

One sentence by ComScore Vice President Hans Fredericks pretty much says it all, “As consumer usage and technology continue to advance, look for advertising to play an increasingly important role in the development of the mobile ecosystem.”

Just as cable was originally touted as a “commercial free” environment at one time only to succumb to financial motives offered by advertisers for generating revenue streams, one can expect that the world of cell phone mobile apps is soon to follow.

Although the ground with mobile apps has already been broken, mostly with the inherent internet advertising associated with accessing web based applications, expect more direct methods to slip there way onto your smart phone’s screen in the near future.

In April, going after smart phone users directly, 689 advertisers reached customers through mobile display advertising. This attempt to advertise utilizing the growth in 3G/4G phone technologies is up 128% from just two years ago. That is some very impressive growth, and one can expect that efforts will continue in this direction until the mobile applications venue becomes saturated.

While the lion’s share of these ads were dedicated to publishing and mobile content, a large chunk (26%) of these ads were in the category that includes jewelry; discretionary consumer goods. A snapshot of what is really happening with smart phone users shows that 8 percent responded to a SMS ad sent to their phone, 28 percent saw an ad on a web based application on their smart phone, and an amazing 85 percent of the users used an application on their phone in general.

The jury is still out as to just how long it will be before millions have to sit through a 10 second advertisement on their cell phone before being able to place a phone call, but many suspect that this day is coming.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/majors/all/article_detail?id=26749

Categories : Jewelry Market Trends

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Jewelers Struggling with Volatile Gold Prices

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Often overlooked is the impact that volatile gold prices are having on retail jewelry businesses across the globe. With sometimes dramatic swings in gold prices occurring in a single day, jewelers now need to take some pointers from their local gas stations on how to adjust prices for their products on a seemingly daily basis.

Price your gold items too high and you will cost yourself sales. Price them too low, and even though you may still make a profit based on your original purchase costs, you may not be able to afford to replenish your inventories going forward.

Here are many mechanics to operating your jewelry business that are impacted by wild swings in the price of gold and other precious metals. One of the most deleterious things that can happen is to inform a customer in the middle of trying to finalize a sale that the price on the sticker is not the price on the sticker!

With many customers expecting that the highest price that they will have to pay is the quoted sticker price, to inform them that the items cost is now $50, $100, or some other amount higher than what is on the sticker is just a bad place to start the transaction. This means that your stickers need to be updated on a regular basis.

In addition, with gold prices up one day and down the next, refusing to honor returns dollar for dollar for items just because the price of gold has dropped back down and value has been lost during the interim period is likely not to play well with a loyal customer either. You, and your staff, will need to be able to make important decisions about pricing on the fly, but it is still best to present a consistent face to the customer.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/independents/market-developments/article_detail?id=26743

Categories : Gold, Jewelry Market Trends, Metals

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What is the Future for the Diamond Industry?

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

A major theme at the recent 2011 Antwerp Diamond Conference centered on being able to adapt quickly in rapidly changing world. With a major conclusion of the conference being that the diamond industry cannot continue to approach the market the same way that it has for the last 50 years, what actions should be taken moving forward? Knowing that there are two ways to forecast the future, one is to predict it and the other is to invent it, many thoughts centered upon lessons learned.

One question that kept popping up was “What lessons has De Beers learned over the last ten years?” Although a direct response to this very direct question was regularly sidestepped, the consensus was whatever you do, do it faster. Indicating that De Beers perhaps should have been more aggressive, had the right people at the right levels, and that sharing information is key to future success, this still sounds very much like a sidestep to the question. The first day of the conference was centered on looking forward and trying to discern what the future trends will be in the diamond markets.

The second day of the conference turned a little more inward looking at some specific challenges facing the industry in the present market and going forward. Recognizing that the potential young diamond consumer faces a wide variety of choices for spending their hard earned dollar, how best can diamonds compete with the likes of the latest cell phone, iPad2, or other new technology introduction that will require making a purchase decision – will the young consumer even have an interest in purchasing diamonds? Looking towards stimulating future demand by marketing to a more customer oriented selling process instead of consumer oriented marketing was one serious consideration that was presented at the conference.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/diamonds/all/article_detail?id=26513

Categories : Diamonds, Diamonds In San Diego, Jewelry Market Trends

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Understanding Revised FTC Platinum Guidelines

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

With metals manufacturers and jewelry makers constantly having to react to the ever changing prices for precious metals in today’s economy (and other metals as well), variations in material content used to produce jewelry have changed dramatically over the years.

What was once the industry standard for “platinum” with variations regularly limited to the additions of iridium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium, and palladium (other platinum group metals), thing have changed significantly as the markets evolve. Today’s platinum products will just as easily see the addition to the base platinum of other materials such as copper, cobalt, tungsten, and other materials that are more susceptible to oxidation.

In light of these new material combinations, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revised its guidelines for “platinum” as of December 2010. The new guidelines now take into consideration two separate groups of platinum material classifications: “traditional” platinum products, and “non-traditional”; platinum products. The traditional platinum products group covers the typical use of high levels of pure platinum. The non-traditional products group covers products in two separate classifications:

1) Combinations of materials below 950 parts per thousand (ppt) of platinum group metals
2) Those products that contain less than 850 ppt of pure platinum

An item containing less than 850 ppt of platinum with a total of platinum group metals below 950 ppt now require the amount of other metals to be disclosed. As an example, an item containing 65% platinum, 25% Cobalt, and 10% Palladium would require that a disclosure be made of the contents. Abbreviations are allowed in the markings, but identification is required nonetheless. It should also be noted that the word “platinum” cannot be used for any item that contains less than 50% platinum as part of the total mixture.

More details on the guidelines can be found at:
http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/reports/article_detail?id=25760

Categories : Jewelry Market Trends, Metals, Platinum

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