From the 5th MGJC: how often can you sell a - different - diamond to the same consumer?

Roman Serov of Octonus (Finland, Russia), a leading diamond technology developer and Dr. Olga Okhrimenko, of Cutwise.com, presented "Diamond Impression -The Key to Sustainable Competitiveness"

Dr. Okhrimenko began by asking a set of confronting questions, addressing the challenges retailers face when trying to sell diamonds to consumers, and, not less important, how develop repeat customers and sell them diamonds again and again.

This is not easy, she said. After all, "how often can you sell a consumer the same product? And why would consumers want to buy diamonds if they are so confused as to what defines a diamond?" she asked.

She showed a string of a conversation that a consumer had on pricescope.com, a consumer website for diamonds. The woman wanted to buy a three-carat stone, but was confused why a dozen of stones, all with the same 4Cs parameters, could be so differently priced? Why were there price differences of 50 percent? Obviously, she would never expect such a situation when buying a new BMW or Jaguar?

Speaking about creating repeat sales, she used the following analogy. "Would you be to convince a tourist, to climb the Everest for a second time? Probably not! That experience was unique!  But what if you could convince that tourist to climb other peaks, and create another, unique experience?"

Dr. Okhrimenko then presented Hi-Vi, "an effective way to present diamonds online." By means of a system created by Octonus, retailers can create a virtual showcase where one can search for diamonds with the best optical performance scores. The system helps find and display the most impressive diamonds "with superior consumer benefits such us brilliancy, fire, table color, symmetry, spread, etc. They are much better than others with the same shape, size and pavilion color."

Go to cutwise.com for more information.