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Jessica Gylsen: Everything You Need to Know to Grow Your Natural Diamond Business December 27, 2024 (0 comments)
New York, NY--The beginning of 2025 is shaping up to be a window of opportunity one most certainly doesn’t want to miss. There is an unmistakable air of excitement, energy and opportunity as natural diamond interest begins to build momentum. We are at a unique window of time where there is opportunity for retailer influence, as engagement ring customers everywhere look for diamond direction. For many stores, these last few years have been a bubble of lab centric sales.
As prices continue to drop with lab grown diamonds, one should heed warning by staying singularly focused on only synthetics. While there most certainly will continue to be a place on the market and in stores for lab grown diamonds, customers looking for engagement rings with a stronger intrinsic and investment value will seek retailers that strongly promote and support a natural diamond inventory.
The story of a natural diamond is one that has been set aside as of late while the demand for synthetics took center stage. As we enter a season of diamond rebirth, it’s important for stores, sales executives and teams to remember what it means to sell a natural diamond.
Tenured employees of 5-plus years are a rarity—which means that many stores have a sales staff that hasn’t experienced a time where naturals were a singular focus. Comprehensive diamond training and a re-tailoring of salesmanship process will be pivotal to increase natural diamond sales.
Here are some points to consider when evaluating a baseline level of knowledge:
● Does every presentation begin by showing a natural diamond as a lead option? Even if the customer initially requests a lab grown diamond, encourage your staff to show a natural diamond first. The art of salesmanship is skillfully presenting strategic options and creating relevancy through romance. Most customers don’t understand the true differences between a natural and a synthetic. Use the beginning of a presentation as a window of opportunity to educate and explain.
● What makes a natural diamond special? Why buy a natural diamond instead of a lab? Pose this question to your sales staff and create brainstorming opportunities, leading your team to be a machine of curated responses. Confidence sells. Consumers in every sector of business look to be guided by experts. In order to sell more naturals, a sales team needs to be confident on the WHY of natural diamonds. The history, the stories, the romance, the intrinsic value—a natural diamond’s place in history has been firmly rooted for centuries, it is so much more than a simple accessory. Cultivating a store environment where your team understands the broader picture of a natural diamond’s everlasting value will help lab to natural conversation rates.
● While a refresher course on the 4Cs seems rudimentary, it’s actually quite necessary for many sales teams. Purchasing a natural diamond needs to be treated entirely different than a synthetic. A synthetic is much more a streamlined commodity. Lab grown diamond manufacturers have mastered the process to control quality and produce the very best in color and clarity. Mother Nature didn’t have the same regimented process some 3.8 billion years ago. That is what makes a natural diamond special! It takes the most unique set of environmental circumstances to produce such natural wonders.
● Clarity characteristics, variations of body color and fluorescence are all a result of a natural diamond’s birth process. A strong team needs to be able to explain that it’s not apples to apples. Showing a three-carat D VVS1 lab compared to a three-carat D VVS1 natural isn’t the path to growing your natural diamond business. The price extremes will be too vast and unattainable. Instead, coach your team to become natural diamond guides through qualifying questions around budget and quality specifics.
● Consumers everywhere will be looking for local jewelers that are a beacon within the community for professionalism, integrity and trust. This is the time to take stronghold on your local market as a premier store focusing on multi-generational quality. DeBeers has recently launched a $20 million campaign focused on natural diamonds that is anticipated to boost natural diamond buzz globally. It’s an excellent window of time to consider joining trade organizations that support ethical business practices, such as the American Gem Society. It’s also a time to think creatively and evaluate your store’s local stronghold on bridal.
Acceleration through innovation, the start of a new year marks the perfect time to step outside of the box and think creatively!
● A diamond event can be an extremely successful way to create buzz within your community. Partner with local vendors and focus on experiential retailing. After all, people don’t buy product; people by people, they buy culture, they buy community. Create a store environment that breeds relationship building. The key to a successful event is to create the desire to be a part of something special. The more you set your store apart and create your own store culture, the more successful your event attendance rate will become. There is an art to planning and executing any store event, and when done correctly, it can be an incredibly powerful tool to boost sales year-round.
If you are truly passionate about rejuvenating your natural diamond business, stocking your natural diamond inventory is crucial. If you don’t have it, you can’t promote it, show it and sell it. Natural diamond pricing is at historic lows recently, making it the most opportune time to invest. With all signs pointing to a strong and healthy return to naturals as the year progresses, buying now is certain to be healthy future profit. I’ve traveled to stores across the country, combing through safes, displays and inventory lists evaluating natural diamond inventories. Customers need to be offered options while being educated on quality differences and they want to do it while they’re in the store that day.
At the very minimum, a baseline inventory of the basics is necessary if you want to be in the natural diamond game. Having a standardized stock on-hand that is curated for your store’s needs alongside a few extraordinary diamonds will allow you to push the limits of what you can sell and achieve. Want to sell big? Show big. Want to sell naturals? Show naturals. A workable inventory that is familiar to the sales team and trained on routinely is a simple step that is certain to produce sales success.
These last few years have been one of the most interesting times in our industry’s history. Synthetic diamonds will always have a place in the jewelry world, but the stronghold they have had on the engagement ring market these last few years is starting to wane. This period of transition is the most pivotal time for retailers to evaluate their natural diamond business, growth strategy and devise a plan to lead their team and store forward. The future for natural diamonds globally is sure to shine bright in 2025!
Jessica Gylsen is a third-generation gemologist and was recently awarded one of the top 20 jewelry industry professionals under age 40. Jessica spent over 20 years in luxury retail as a buyer, event planner, trainer and top sales executive at stores including York Jewelry, Exclusively Diamonds and Wixon Jewelers, before joining XL Diamonds, a NYC natural diamond wholesale company in 2022.