To diamond industry was once upon a time prior to the advent of the internet a close-nit seamless operation sphere that was dependent on the alliance of four primary participants or players of the industry who were reliant on the contributions of the participant who came before or after in the value chain.
The four participants included miners who mine the diamonds, the dealers who purchase rough diamonds to produce finished products, jewellery designers, and retailers. In general, it would seem that the dealers are the ‘wholesalers’ which is actually a misconception.
The fact is that miners, dealers, jewellery designers and retailers have the capacity to act as wholesalers with each stage of the supply chain marking up a certain percentage which in turn is dependent on the total amount of diamond harvest, the larger the harvest of diamonds, the lower the price.
Added to the current competition that natural diamonds receive from lab grown diamonds which are as good if not better than natural diamonds in some ways, getting diamonds at wholesale prices is not as straightforward as one would think.
If the buyer has links with the mining company, the wholesale price would be much lower than the whole sale price that a designer would be able to offer as the designer had to purchase the diamonds from the dealer who in turn purchased it from the mining company.
The fact that each stage of the supply chain is dependent on the other buying a diamond at wholesale price as a consumer is subjective and it is explained in more detail below.
Starting with the mining component within the standard precious stone industry that only revolves around conflict free diamonds and also verified by big names within the industry such as Al ROSA or De Beers.
Miners sell uncut or rough diamonds in large quantities to corporations such as Al Rosa or De Beers and to buy at the first stage of ‘wholesale price’ one would have to be a ‘Sightholder’ (for more information on sightholders look up Global Sightholder Sales on Google) which costs millions (An example of a sighholder is Kiran Gems that is based in India) and these components do not sell directly to end users (consumers).
The supply chain however extends from there to dealers who cut and polish diamonds to retailers for resale, within this stage there is a possibility of consumers getting into the band wagon the stones are often to diamond trading hubs which include Honk Kong, Mumbai, Antwerp, New York City or Tel Aviv.
These sales funnel becomes comprehensive due to the fact that the diamonds are sold in significant volume in order to sustain the costs that the dealers incur because of the expertise of the designers of jewellery, physical store retail location and as well as online diamond store operations, where it is easier for end users to get bargains even for the purchase of a single diamond provided the customer is a repeat customer as the diamond industry values repeat customers more than anything else and generally afford them lavish discounts.