Jogia Diamonds

2007-03-15T16:11:00.000+09:00

This Blog Has Moved!

We've moved from Blogger and integrated our blog into our existing website.

Our new blog can be found at: http://www.diamondsandopals.com/blog/

2007-03-02T17:58:00.000+09:00

How Buying A Diamond Has Changed in The Last 10 Years: Part I

Prior to the mid 90s, the only way to buy a diamond was to go to a jewellery store and buy one from their stock or one they had received on approval from a wholesaler.

There were a couple of problems with this:

a) You had to go to a number of stores just to find the diamond you wanted.
b) It was expensive, and the diamond was probably uncertified.

However, in the mid to late 90s, internet retailers like us burst on to the scene and created shockwaves in the industry.

Instead of offering diamonds in stock or from an Australian wholesaler (or "middleman"), we listed diamonds directly from overseas cutters and wholesalers. And instead of charging a markup of up of to 400%, our average markup was a mere 20%.

In the early days, the market for this method of buying was still small and yet to fully "catch-on", however, there were only a couple of players in the industry, so sales were solid and we remained profitable.

However, as others in the industry caught on to this "new deal" and new websites came and went, it was clear that internet diamond sales were here to stay and that more and more diamond dealers were going to try to compete.

2007-02-28T17:32:00.000+09:00

Our Signature Series vs Our International Selection: An Explanation

Traditionally we have offered stones in our inventory, as well as a couple from Australian based wholesalers only to Perth based clients, as well as a few clients we meet interstate. The stones that were listed on our website were all from overseas cutters and wholesalers - something that is done on many diamond websites.

The reasoning behind this method was that:

The stones from overseas cutters and wholesalers would dwarf the amount of stones in our inventory.

There was no value being added to stones in our inventory for customers buying online.

In early February we invested in three tools: The OGI Firetrace, a powerful gemmological microscope as well as The Ideal-Scope Sales System. Along with our digital SLR, compact camera and video camera, we can now say (tongue-in-cheek of course!) that we have a diamond lab.

The main benefit of having a diamond lab is that we can now transmit proportion analysis, brilliance reports, microscopic photos, Ideal Scope images as well as videos all through the web or email - something that is popular in America, and now available in Australia.

One US merchant likens this system to the Nintendo Wii - much like playing Wii Sports isn't quite playing the actual sport, but it's very close to it.

So, how does this equipment affect how we can sell diamonds over the internet?

Well firstly, we can analyse all our diamonds in our inventory, as well as a few others and post them on the internet. Because they have downloadable photos, videos and cut analysis for comparison with other stones, we can charge a little more, reflecting the true inventory cost of our diamonds. We've even been super creative an labeled these diamonds our "Signature Series".

Secondly, we're not getting rid of the diamonds from overseas cutters and wholesalers. Instead, we've been even more creative and labeled them our "International Selection".

So, what are the main differences between our International Selection and Signature Series, and which one should you choose?

Firstly, our International Selection have either EGL USA or GIA certificates, they are also on average about 5-10% cheaper than our Signature Series as there are no inventory costs and there may well be other sellers competing to sell the same stone. The main drawback is that buyers can only compare specifications on paper, and not with photos, videos or detailed cut analysis.

In order to get a stone under $10,000 from our International Selection into our lab, we request that you put a $150 deposit down. We will then import the diamond, which usually takes only 3-5 days, analyse it and send you the results for approval. Upon approval, you pay the balance and we will ship to you via our fully insured, overnight courier. Should you disapprove, you can select another diamond from our signature series, using the full $150 deposit toward the purchase, choose to import another diamond, forfeiting $75 of the deposit, or choose not to buy from Jogia Diamonds at all and forfeit the entire deposit.

As you can see, this system has its drawbacks, as you need to fairly committed to buying a diamond from us. However, the alternative system, which we used to use, and others still use is to ask for full upfront pre-payment and simply send the diamond, totally unseen to the customer. The costs of returns was integrated into the total price, meaning everyone paid that little bit extra. We think this system is a lot better as it discourages comparison shopping with our International Selection, and anyway, $150 is such a small commitment, especially if you like the idea of receiving Australia's most detailed cut analysis with your diamond.

Secondly, our Signature Series is more akin to a traditional retail experience. We even think it's a lot better as you can view objective analysis right from the comfort of your home or office, without pushy salespeople or lighting conditions misrepresenting the quality of the stone.

Once you've been through and selected a diamond from our signature series, you can click the "Buy Now" link and order straight there and then. Of course at times we're either busy or just plain slack and we don't update the diamonds that have been sold, which is why we ask you to call us prior to purchasing if you aren't confident in our website updating ability.

So, that's a brief overview of the changes we've made over the past month. We're still busy setting up our new office and showroom (a video is available here) so we hope to start adding our signature series diamonds in the next few days.

2006-12-12T10:14:00.000+09:00

The Freeloader Problem

Seth Godin blogs about someone buying from McDonald's, but eating at Starbucks, simply because it is "much nicer" at Starbucks than it is at McDonald's.

So, how does this relate to buying diamonds?

Well, contrary to what most in the industry think or like to think, most consumers know little, if any about diamonds. This means that it is only natural for consumers to want to look and compare diamonds before they purchase, as they want to know what all this "SI1", "VVS2", "Colour H" and "Colour D" actually means. And, being consumers, they also want the lowest price possible.

This creates a paradox, which at times results in the classic "freeloader problem". That is, consumers go to a retail store, look at diamonds and get advice, but then buy from an online merchant at a much cheaper price! It should also be noted that this can work the other way - consumers look up prices online, get advice and then bargain a retail store down to that price.

So how do both online and brick and mortar merchants tackle this problem?

Well, one way that Jogia Diamonds has solved this problem is through maintaining a reasonable level of high quality stock, along with monthly trips to the Eastern States to show diamonds to customers.

Another way, which is popular in America is to provide extra information such as Brilliancescope images and photographs. However, in our opinion, these do little to solve the freeloader problem as consumers will still want to view and compare diamonds with their own eyes.

So, what about brick and mortar diamond merchants?

The key is to find a balance between high markup stores such as Tiffany's and the low cost online merchants, combined with smart marketing.

Speaking from experience, Jogia Diamonds uses online ads to target Perth, and only Perth diamond consumers. When a consumer clicks our ads, they can then click through to see our stock diamonds, as well as our regular website. This kind of targeted advertising creates a strong link between the online and offline experience, whilst controlling the now enormous cost of online advertising.

And our big secret is that most of our Perth customers buy diamonds that we keep in stock. Sure, they are about 10% more expensive than the cheapest diamonds listed on our site, but they provide the customer with the best experience, are all GIA or DCLA certified, much cheaper than retail store prices, and are probably the most profitable.

2006-12-03T20:24:00.000+09:00

Happy Daylight Saving

In case you haven't realised, Western Australia introduced daylight saving today.

This brings us inline with the rest of Australia (except Queensland and The Northern Territory), meaning we are only 2 hours behind Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales, 1.5 hours behind South Australia, 1 hour behind Queensland and 30 minutes behind The Northern Territory.

The benefit is that those calling us from interstate or overseas can now do so earlier in the morning as our phones are automagically released from nightmode at 8am local time.

Of course, some people say the WA doesn't need daylight saving, as the state's sunset is already quite late. In fact, Sydney's longitude is about 151E, whilst Perth's is 115E, a difference of 36 degrees. All other things being equal, if the two cities were 30 degrees apart, then a 2 hour time difference would mean the sun would set at the exact same time. However, the extra six degrees means that Perth already gets late sunsets.

Anyway, below is a picture taken at 8PM today. As you can see, it is still quite light.

2006-12-01T11:47:00.000+08:00

Black Hat vs White Hat Diamond Merchants

Nowadays, with so much choices offline and online for buy diamonds, it is difficult to decide who the best is. For a bit of fun, we've attempted to categorise different types of merchants using a colour scale - black hat = bad, white hat = good.

Blacker Than Black Hat

Sells uncertified diamonds that are either fake or have undergone treatments. They tell their customers that they are natural, and possibly give a certificate or valuation they have made themselves.

Black Hat

Engages in a variety of less than ethical sales techniques such as "total carat weight", switching stones or inaccurate in house grading.

Pencil Grey Hat

Sells low quality diamonds, possibly with a grading certificate from an independent laboratory. However, they trick their customers into thinking they are buying a large, high quality diamond at a great price (or they say "you can't buy high quality diamonds in this city/country") and that the grading certificate is "just as good" as one from The GIA.

Overcast Grey Hat

Lists certified diamonds on the internet, but doesn't keep any stock, instead, opting to drop ship diamonds from supplier to customer.

Off-White Hat

Sells a variety of certified diamonds that they keep in stock. However, charge an unreasonable premium, possibly with branding, and deliberately limit the customer to the diamonds they have in stock.

White Hat

Sells certified diamonds online and offline, is well connected within the diamond industry, and possesses a lot of diamond experience. Keeps a good amount of high quality stock and has solid relationships with diamond wholesalers. For online customers, they give extra information such as light performance information, photographs, ideal scope images and diamond scans.

Pearly White

Uses the internet as a medium for advertising, research and discussion. However, unlike white hats, they do not sell diamonds over the internet, instead opting for the more traditional approach. When customers come to their store, they are given accurate, unbiased information and like white hat merchants, are offered a variety of choices from the merchant's own stock and wholesalers.

Blindingly White

They are like pearly white hat merchants, but take time to understand what the customer is after, can afford and generally get to know the customer better. With this they match the customer with the perfect diamond. If they are unable to do this, they admit defeat and refer the customer to a more suitable merchant. They also take steps to avoid attracting the "wrong crowd" such as those seeking a "big and cheap" (and therefore low quality) diamond. They may also travel to rural or remote locations to show customers diamonds.

2006-11-30T20:29:00.000+08:00

Recap of the Last Two Months

The last two months have been hectic as usual for us, so below, is a digest of changes that we've made to our company and website:

Integrating the Wiki Into the Main Site

We found that people don't want to visit a seperate wiki site, so to increase usability, we integrated the wiki into our main site.

Six Months Interest Free

One of the main problems faced by diamond buyers today is organising enough funds to pay for their purchase. In addition, due to budgetary constraints, they might settle for a lower quality diamond. With six months interest free, customers can easily obtain finance for their purchase and pay for it over six months without any interest. Of course conditions do apply, and we will continue to waive the application fee over the Christmas and New Year period.

New Video Section

Google buying YouTube for US$1.65b confirmed our suspicions that video is the next big thing on the internet. Whilst only a few old videos are up at the moment, you can expect interviews, product demonstrations and other interesting short videos we've made over the next few months.

New Customer Management System

Before we implemented the new system, we merely used an emails stored on a central server to interact with our clients and suppliers. Now, with the new system implemented, we can easily manage and interact with our customers and suppliers, thus providing better service and freeing up time for things like blogging and making videos.

2006-10-03T17:09:00.000+08:00

Western Australia's Booming Economy Fuels Growth in Our Perth Client Base

Traditionally, interstate and overseas clients have made up the bulk of our customer base. However, on the back on a booming local economy, analysis has shown that for the first nine months of this year, there has been a large spike in Perth based clients for the first time in over a decade.

As shown below, in 2005 27.5% of our customers were based in Perth, whereas for the first nine months of 2006, 38.5% of our customers were based in Perth.

To facilitate even more growth, in the coming weeks we shall be launching a localised ad campaign, combined with a "Perth Only" website where Perth clients can view our stock diamonds as well as jewellery designs.

2006-08-25T13:33:00.000+08:00

Introducing The Australian Diamond Wiki...

Re-affirming our commitment to providing consumers with the very best diamond education, we have created The Australian Diamond Wiki.

What Is A Wiki?

The Victorian Parliament defines a wiki as "A website or similar online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively."

Why did we create a wiki?

Nowadays, there is so much information regarding diamonds on the web. This information may come from labs, merchants, forums or gemmologists. Over the years we have noticed that this glut of information creates the following problems for consumers:

There's a lot of conflicting information, especially on "religious" topics such as cut and certification.

It is difficult to find information that is unbiased and presents multiple perspectives.

There is very little information specific to Australia.

Information may be long-winded, difficult to read or understand.

Good information may be buried in forum or blog posts.

Therefore, we created The Australian Diamond Wiki to alleviate these problems and allow consumers to make a more informed decision about their diamond purchase.

What are our aims for the wiki?

To aggregate the very best information into one site.

To present unbiased, factual information to consumers.

To open up the education process and allow different perspectives to be presented.

To give consumers information specific to Australia.

To present easy to read, concise and relevant information.

To allow us to quickly and easily create educational content.

What Are Our Expectations For The Wiki?

Firstly, we don't expect many outside our company will actually create new content. One thing to keep in mind is that all text in the wiki can be copied, possibly modified and posted on another site.

However, given that people have been critical of what we have written about in the past, we do expect those outside our company to edit our entries, thus contributing to the wiki.

Other merchants (our competitors) can even add an entry about their business, preferably linking to their website. The entry will then be locked (as our entry is) so others can not edit it.

At the moment there are few entries. However, given the nature of a wiki it is expected the number of entries will grow rapidly in the coming months. For example, when writing about cut, we might start off with an entry about a diamond's cut in relation to its price. We might then create new entries on proportions, ideal cut and so on, forming an entire series of entries on diamond cut.

Where is The Australian Diamond Wiki?

The Australian Diamond Wiki can be found at http://www.australiandiamondexchange.com.

2006-08-22T18:02:00.000+08:00

$1.5 million of Diamonds Stolen

In what seems to be a problem with the Australian Jewellery Fair, thieves has stolen $1.5 million of diamonds.

While most merchants have mantraps, The Sydney Exhibition Centre probably does not offer the same level of security of a secured office, thus creating the perfect opportunity for thieves.

The original news article can be found here.

2006-08-14T12:54:00.000+08:00

DCLA Service Offers Better Security

Whilst a thief maybe able to steal a television or computer, these objects are usual very difficult to steal (as the are heavy!) and will probably only yield a few hundred dollars at a pawnbroker. However, with diamonds a thief can easily steal a diamond, put it in their pocket and yield thousands of dollars.

A new registry service from the DCLA offers diamond owners the ability to register their diamonds in an online database. If a diamond is stolen, merchants will be alerted and it will be picked up immediately should it be sent back to the DCLA for a new grading report or other reason.

A nominal fee of $35.00 is payable for each diamond listed, and as you can imagine, the effectiveness of this service would be increased dramatically with a laser inscription on the diamond.

For added security, the DCLA verify ownership of the diamond before listing. Their method of doing so has sparked our curiousity, so we, amongst others, would love to find out.

2006-08-12T20:15:00.000+08:00

I Can't Believe It Has Come To This

It seems that over the past few days a certain foul-mouthed internet troll has been targeting both Gemex as well as this blog.

Whilst both ourselves and Gemex have deleted the troll's comments, it has required us to make some rules on posting comments on our blog.

Whilst these rules may seem obvious to some, it is clear that we have to spell out these rules like a grade three teacher to others.

Hopefully Gemex will follow suit and draft the same or similar rules.

2006-07-31T05:43:00.000+08:00

Blast From The Past!

These Jogia Diamonds television ads aired in 1987 on Perth television. Apologies for the quality, as they have been recorded from almost 20 year old VHS tapes.

This Good Morning Perth segment from the early 1990s featured Jenny Seton and Eoin Cameron, complete with chicken, telling really, really bad jokes about chickens. The segment was to promote The Great Australian Chook Raffle, which featured a "chook" brooch (which was really a rooster) provided by Jogia Diamonds as one of the prizes.

2006-07-26T10:18:00.000+08:00

Too Busy To Blog

You may have noticed that we haven't posted in our blog for nearly a month now. However, contrary to what some people may believe, it is not because we have abandoned the blog, or have nothing to blog about, but we are JUST TOO BUSY!

The last three months (May, June, July) have seen us chalk up record sales (and profits). Not only that, our sales boom has seemingly no end in sight.

With our inbox being flooded with enquiries, we are frantically working to improve internal systems and implement a customer relations management (CRM) system.

Rest assured, that despite all this, we continue to innovate and introduce new features and products for our customers. For example, the new daily watchlist feature enables people looking for a specific diamond to get daily updates based on specific parameters.

2006-06-30T13:14:00.000+08:00

Diamond Buying Guide Video

If you're the type of person who likes watching the movie instead of reading the book, then this diamond buying guide video is for you.

For a whole 50 minutes, Kim Shaffer of www.freediamondvideo.com takes an in depth look at the 4Cs.

More information, including a written copy is available at www.freediamondvideo.com.

2006-06-28T18:59:00.000+08:00

A Reminder For Fellow Google Advertisers

Earlier this year, Google settled a lawsuit brought against them due to click fraud.

Anyway, the settlement web page is now accepting submissions for a part of the US$90 million available in the class action (money will be credited to your Adwords account).

Of course, we remain skeptical that we will see much compensation, if any, and taking part precludes you from any further action against Google.

Over the last year, many diamond merchants have advertised on Google, and whilst Google have taken enormous steps to reduce click fraud, we have spoken to fellow merchants who say they are still victims of click fraud.

Some well known steps to reduce click fraud are:

Don't advertise on the content network. This is where 90% of the fraud occurs. If you want your ads on the content network, limit them to certain sites.

Track your clicks and establish fraud deterrents. Who's Clicking Who seems to be popular, but the same effect can be achieved with a few lines of code, and no monthly fee - but it's only $30 a month anyway.

Know your ROI and what keywords are producing the best ROI.

Google recently introduced time based ads, whereby you can start and stop your ads at various times of the day. Whilst we don't believe this will reduce click fraud, for some it may increase ROI.

2006-06-27T11:05:00.000+08:00

Feedback On The Gemex Website

As a member of the Gemex trading floor, we'd like to give our friends at Gemex some feedback on their website.

1. Don't claim W3C compliance when your page has 67 errors.

At the time of writing Gemex's Forum claims it adheres to web standards, however, it contains 67 errors! No doubt this also undermines their creditability with regards to their valuations being ACCC compliant. We suggest a trip to W3 Schools for a good XHTML tutorial, as well as our home page for a good example of a compliant page.

2. Get rid of the advertising, or at least tone it down.

Currently, the advertising really detracts from the site. We aren't really sure of the motivation behind all the advertisements, except for the fact that they may bring in a few hundred dollars a month, however some arguments against are:

Gemex claims to be independent. How can the do this when they are accepting advertising money from merchants (including us)?

Life insurance, flowers and accommodation have no relevance to jewellery or diamonds. The revenue generated from these ads must be a few dollars (if that) per month. On the other hand, more relevant ads will bring more revenue from ClixGalore.

They are detrimental to the user experience as they are distracting, use more bandwidth and may cause "banner blindness".

It is spam. In the users' eyes but also in the eyes of Google. Matt Cutts of Google uses the example of a real estate site: "Linking to a free ringtones site, an SEO contest, and an Omega 3 fish oil site? I think I’ve found your problem. I’d think about the quality of your links if you’d prefer to have more pages crawled.". Therefore, linking to sites not related to jewellery may affect Gemex's search engine placement and thus, long term popularity.

3. You have an RSS feed for the forums, why not the trading floor?

Currently, trading floor members have to manually add diamonds. In addition, they have to login to the Gemex site to view diamonds. It would be a lot easier and add a lot more value to the site if merchants could:

Submit an XML or comma delimited feed of their stock.

Access an RSS feed that would allowing them easy access to updated stock.

4. List only one instance of a chain store in the "Recommended Jewellers".

The "Recommended Jewellers" section is overrun by chain stores. Why not just list one instance of a chain and mention their locations?

Hopefully Gemex can act on all, if not some of this feedback and make a better site for all.

2006-06-17T16:22:00.000+08:00

Internet No Silver Bullet For Diamond Merchants

The past year has seen an increasing number of Australian diamond merchants advertise online.

However many may well be under the impression that selling diamonds online is as simple as selling computer parts - set up a website, post diamonds on the site, advertise on search engines and people will come to the site and buy a diamond.

Unfortunately, like most things in life it isn't quite simple.

Firstly, you have to set up an easy to use, user oriented site with unique and useful content that makes people want to buy a diamond from you. You then have to maintain it, keep it up to date and add more features to it (a website should never be considered complete).

Secondly, you have to manage your marketing on a regular basis (daily or several times per week).

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising has the power to create very little "wastage", and produce extremely high return on investment - if done correctly.

Newcomers to the internet marketing game tend to make the same mistakes we were making 3 years ago, ending up with large bills and very little sales. Hiring a professional to manage your PPC campaign may seem silly and unnecessary at first, but the few hundred dollars spent has the potential to decrease your advertising spend whilst dramatically increasing your sales.

Lastly, and most importantly, consumers like viewing and comparing diamonds before purchasing. Thus, you need either a full time presence in all Australian capital cities, which is pretty much unviable for internet based diamond merchants, or establish a virtual presence in cities other than your own, travelling only a few times per month. A few of the more established internet merchants (including us) have a virtual presence in cities other than their own, whilst for others, it doesn't seem to be part of their business plan.

2006-06-02T14:28:00.000+08:00

The Benefits of Creative Commons

It would seem that by not copyrighting our diamond education articles, but instead, using the Creative Commons License, has paid off.

Why? Because it gives us free advertising! This page from Bela Diamonds, designed by SurfPacific, is an exact copy of our diamond glossary. If you scroll down to "J", you will see the our name, along with the blurb: "The Home of Beautiful Diamonds, Serving the World through the Web.".

We don't know yet whether the web designer's intent was to strictly adhere to the Creative Commons License, or it was just a copy and paste job, but we certainly are flattered to have our name promoted on a competitor's website.

Maybe someone should tell Bela Diamonds and SurfPacific? Or maybe not?

2006-05-17T11:48:00.000+08:00

Our Diamond Database Just Got A Whole Lot More Usable

One of the problems our website visitors had with a database of over 100,000 diamonds was finding the perfect diamond sometimes proved too hard.

To solve this problem, our webmaster has added a "Sort By" feature in both the search and browse pages.

So, whether you are looking for the cheapest diamonds, the highest quality diamond or the best value diamond, you can now find it with a click of a button.

Click here to go to our diamond database.

2006-05-14T20:10:00.000+08:00

Today Tonight Report on Diamond Certification

More information about diamond certification can be found at: Diamond Certification Comments