China’s army of online shoppers stop at buying one thing – diamonds. That appears to be changing, De Beers says
- Retailers are blending physical and virtual experiences to build trust in diamond sales online
- China online diamond sales have grown ‘significantly,’ says De Beers
China consumers, used to buying everything from Haagen Daz ice cream to cars on their mobile phones, have lacked trust in one online purchase – diamonds. That’s beginning to change.
Online sales of diamonds in China have picked up “significantly,” says De Beers, the world’s largest supplier of rough diamonds by value.
In 2017, only 1 per cent of diamond sales in China were made online. While De Beers declined to say how much that figure has increased recently, its trade communications manager David Petrie told the South China Morning Post “we have just received more recent findings from 2019 showing that online has grown significantly.”
It is an important change for jewellers in China at a time when traditional retail shopping continues to struggle, opening up a new revenue stream and potentially cutting down on costs associated with brick and mortar businesses.
Also, many people in China live in rural areas far away from big city shopping centres. That means if confidence can be built up among these consumers to buy online, jewellers potentially can break into new markets.