Why Are Some of Our Diamonds More Expensive Than Our Competitors?

Occasionally we get asked if we can match a price or give a better deal on a diamond because someone has seen what seems to be a similar diamond somewhere else or on another website.

Usually when we ask for more details like a certificate, so that we are able to offer a better price, people are not that forthcoming.

Indeed, the fact of the matter is that you can likely find a diamond of the same carat weight, colour and clarity for a lot less elsewhere. These three factors (carat weight, colour and clarity) are easy for consumers to understand – therefore, those operating on a super-limited budget often opt for the cheaper option. That’s their decision and we understand and respect that our company and the products we sell are definitely not for everyone.

So, what are some reasons why we are more expensive than some of our competitors? Below are a few:

• We publish an incredible amount of information on our website. From prices, to microscopic photos and cut analysis to videos of our office, potential clients can see everything they need to know about our products and company. This of course has its downfall in that our competitors can just log onto our website, look at our prices and beat us by $1. In fact, we like to take credit for lowering retail diamond prices in Australia and making the market more competitive.
• We only stock GIA and AGS certified diamonds. This naturally makes our diamonds attract a premium over diamonds certified by any other lab in the world as well as uncertified diamonds.
• We sell diamonds based on light performance – not lab cut gradings. If all you want is a “GIA Excellent” graded diamond at the cheapest price, we are probably not for you. Sure, we can source a diamond with a GIA Excellent grade at an incredible price, but once we put it under the Ideal-Scope and run it through our AGS PGS software, it’s likely to be not so excellent.
• Our Crossfire diamonds come with a host of extras like laser inscription, verification, 30-day money back guarantee and so on.

As you can see, it now becomes very easy to sell diamonds cheaper than us if you use words like “this diamond is beautiful”, “this lab is internationally recognised”, “this diamond has a top cut grade”. Of course, nothing can beat scientific analysis to prove the beauty of a stone.

That said, we also offer a price match guarantee. For our Crossfire diamonds, if you see a similar diamond from another retailer that is in stock, we will beat it by 10%. Additionally, if you see the same diamond on our website as another website at a cheaper price, we will match that price. Over the six or so months we have advertised this policy, it has only been attempted to be used twice. On one occasion, the other diamond was one clarity grade lower and a lot deeper than ours. On another occasion, a client saw the same diamond as one of our Crossfire diamonds on another website and thought it was in stock. Needless to say, we had bought the diamond about a week earlier for our own inventory, but the competitor hadn’t updated their site yet!

As you can see, we aren’t competing for those shopping for a piece of paper or a specific budget. Although we may have done that in the past, we are now competing for customers who want genuine value for money, combined with top light performance and the assurance that they are getting a correctly graded diamond.

This entry was written by Nikhil Jogia and was posted on on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Taking Care of Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.