Yosef
06-08-2007, 09:29 PM
In-store Advantages:
- Local Service: If you work with the right jeweler they'll take care of you for a lifetime, making things like resizing, warranty issues, loose stones, etc easy to deal with later on without needing to ship the item.
- Physical Inspection: If you don't know how big a carat or a millimeter is, or you want to see a quality designer mounting in person or something to inspect for quality, etc this is something that is impossible to do online.
Online Advantages:
- More transparency: Easy to see inventory, pricing, do research, price out your ring before speaking to a salesperson, etc.
- More flexibility: Larger online inventory, online merchants will list thousands of diamonds where as when you go to a jewelry store you typically only see a handful, maybe a few dozen if you're lucky.
- Broker vs. Seller: An online diamond dealer usually does not stock many, if any, diamonds... so they're not trying to push on you what they have or are eager to get rid of. Instead they can work on your behalf more as a broker to sift through all the rubish and find you the very best stone at the best price, sort of like the way a real estate agent would. You wouldn't want you real estate broker to just show you 3 houses they have listed and ask you to pick one, so why would you do the same when shopping for diamonds?
- Better Prices: Online only operations typically have much less overhead and expense then jewelers that pay big rent and other overhead costs associated with running a store.
- Local Service: If you work with the right jeweler they'll take care of you for a lifetime, making things like resizing, warranty issues, loose stones, etc easy to deal with later on without needing to ship the item.
- Physical Inspection: If you don't know how big a carat or a millimeter is, or you want to see a quality designer mounting in person or something to inspect for quality, etc this is something that is impossible to do online.
Online Advantages:
- More transparency: Easy to see inventory, pricing, do research, price out your ring before speaking to a salesperson, etc.
- More flexibility: Larger online inventory, online merchants will list thousands of diamonds where as when you go to a jewelry store you typically only see a handful, maybe a few dozen if you're lucky.
- Broker vs. Seller: An online diamond dealer usually does not stock many, if any, diamonds... so they're not trying to push on you what they have or are eager to get rid of. Instead they can work on your behalf more as a broker to sift through all the rubish and find you the very best stone at the best price, sort of like the way a real estate agent would. You wouldn't want you real estate broker to just show you 3 houses they have listed and ask you to pick one, so why would you do the same when shopping for diamonds?
- Better Prices: Online only operations typically have much less overhead and expense then jewelers that pay big rent and other overhead costs associated with running a store.