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Made-To-Order Jewelry Site Launches ‘Jeweler As A Service’ Drop Shipping Program

Diamondère, a custom fine jewelry e-Commerce site that sources natural gemstones, has launched a jewelry drop shipping program for third-party jewelers and retailers. With the drop shipping program, sellers can make a sale on the Diamondère site while the supplier ships the product directly to the customer instead of sending it to the retailer first. As a result, the jeweler doesn’t need to handle inventory or deal with any of the order logistics.

As part of a one-month trial, Diamondère provides jewelers with a white-labelled copy of its e-Commerce site along with their own URL. The site comes preloaded with 1,500+ customizable designs and allows customers to change features, such as gemstones and metals, before engraving any personal messages. By using advanced technologies such as 3D printing and computer-aided design (CAD), Diamondère facilitates a faster custom jewelry manufacturing process, giving shoppers the opportunity to be pickier in their jewelry customization.

“We re-architected the whole manufacturing process to specifically cater to individually designed pieces at scale,” said Anish Godha, CEO of Diamondère in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Manufacturers in the past used to require ‘order quantity: 10’ or ‘order quantity: 20’ for each design, but now we just need ‘order quantity: one’ for each design. The computer can make any changes to the CAD and send it to the 3D printer to stamp out a wax model of the custom jewelry in five minutes, so the whole process gets cut down significantly. We can turn around new designs within a day, instead of the 10 days it took when designers would draw it by hand.”

The retailer can place their logo and branding on the e-Commerce site as well. When the order is placed, Diamondère manufactures and dropships the item directly to the end customer. Expedited turnaround times typically take 10 to 15 days, while regular shipments often take two to three weeks.

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Drop Shipping Allows Diamondère To Scale Without Needing Its Own Stores

Godha noted that drop shipping will be the next step in the growth of Diamondère, especially as the option becomes more commonplace, even for mom-and-pop retail stores. At large retailers like Nordstrom, almost all brands selling via the department store are expected to offer direct drop shipping. The concept is designed to level the playing field between mom-and-pop retailers and these larger luxury retailers, by enabling them to offer similar levels of service, inventory and delivery.

“While we have our whole e-Commerce presence, rather than working online only or opening a Diamondère store ourselves, we figured a drop shipping model is a best-of-both-worlds approach for both the retailers and Diamondère,” Godha said. “From Diamondère’s perspective, we get to enter retail stores, and there’s growth in there where we don’t have to worry about managing salespeople in-store or managing a retail storefront with electricity and other overheads.”

The third-party jeweler benefits because Diamondère manages all backend processes, including the e-Commerce site, product customization, payments, manufacturing, shipping, returns and warranties — eliminating many of the traditional barriers to enter the industry and essentially enabling budding retailers to focus primarily on marketing and customer service. Godha referred to this as the “jeweler-as-a-service” model, which often serves as an extension of the jeweler’s traditional business so the company can minimize costs.

“A lot of our jewelers who signed up for our program actually have their own retail stores as well,” Godha said. “They’re trying to offer this as their custom jewelry program that they offer to their walk-in customers beside the pieces they have to sell. The reason for that is, it’s hard to keep costs down when you’re trying to customize everything. Costs add up and the economics need to work out. For a retailer, doing this by themselves would be more expensive than if they contracted it to someone else who could offer a better price point.”

Diamondère even provides iPads to jeweler partners in stores so that their associates can provide an interactive, immediate customization experience.

Diamondère Attracts All Sellers, From Students To Retirees

Due to its ability to lower barriers to entry, the drop shipping program has attracted new types of sellers, including bloggers, entrepreneurs and even retirees, according to Godha.

“Even someone who’s coming out of art or design school who has great designs can work with us to create their store,” Godha said. “We’ve had people who have never worked in the jewelry space and we’ve had people who are ex-military. People from all varied backgrounds want to sell jewelry, and now it’s easier for them to do exactly that, because of what we’ve built.”

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