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Cover
Retail Rap
By Phyllis Schiller
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| Nader Kash International
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The 4Cs are not the only things that make a piece of diamond jewelry a sales winner. In an ongoing series, Rapaport Magazine explores the “3Ws” — what’s selling, what’s not and why — by going straight to the people who really know — jewelry retailers. Each month, we ask a sampling of retailers to comment on the important issues that are facing the industry today. Here is what they had to say when asked: “What fancy shape diamond is most in demand? Do customers ask for anything other than round brilliant?”
“Princess is still number two and we’re actually seeing a little bit of life in the marquise cut. There is a small percentage of people who have something in mind. But I would say most don’t come in with a particular shape. It’s what they see in the store. We do have to talk about the reasons to get one shape versus another in a particular design. That is a conversation that we consistently have.”
“Princess is very popular. We’re starting to sell some ovals and some marquises. We get a lot of people who have seen the cushion cut, the Asscher cut. They’ll look at it — we carry most shapes mounted, ready to go. But the round is still king; it really dominates. Especially when they look at it and compare the size, the spread. Cutting standards in the fancies are not as consistent, so it’s difficult.
“When you’re looking at an ideal cut fancy, it’s so much more beautiful than the average fancy that’s either long or deep or spread. People will see a princess that’s very shallow, very spread and say, ‘I don’t like princess cuts.’ Whereas you just don’t see that many round diamonds cut that badly any more, at least not in my store. Consumers are so educated on cut and finish and polish and symmetry that I think the fancy shape industry has to step up and cut fancy shapes better.”
“Customers know before they come in what shape they want and generally, they ask for rounds — 80 percent of what we sell are rounds. But we are selling lots of cushions and remarkably, in the past few months, we’re getting calls for ovals, which we haven’t had in years, and also a few pears. An oval shape will always look bigger than a round and maybe that’s why the marquise was so popular, but it’s so out of fashion now.
“There are always trends but for the most part, rounds never come and go. Better makes in rounds have become much more desirable. People are more savvy, due to the internet, about fine make and are much more interested in quality.”
“It’s kind of cute: the young people come in and ask for the ‘circle’ diamond — round brilliant. That is their most favorite at the moment. It used to be cushion, but now it’s round. They are aware of the other shapes, but when they start looking at diamonds, maybe what they can afford is more the round. And if you put it in a cushion-type halo, it’s going to look the same, so they’re happy about that.”
“Cushion shape is the shape we’re selling outside of the round. Approximately, 25 percent to 30 percent of our business right now is in cushion shapes. We’re getting very, very little interest in any other fancy shape. Just a little bit of princess cut, but not much, not like it was. While there’s still plenty of round brilliant interest, the cushion shape seems to be on the tips of most peoples’ tongues. They are coming in asking about cushions. They want to see them or they are already set on that as to where they want to go. In some instances, we do educate them about the shape because there are certain priorities to think about when you’re looking at a cushion shape over a round brilliant.
“We have a line using cushion-cut diamonds as the center, and that’s undoubtedly part of the reason. But people aren’t necessarily coming in here asking for our line, Henri Daussi, by name, but they are coming in asking to see or to look at a cushion cut. Here in Pensacola, Florida, if not everywhere else in the country, cushion cuts are being shown by a lot of jewelry stores.”
“Fancy shapes have actually dropped off. It’s quite a bit of rounds right now. Customers are very aware of the other shapes — we have a full stock of them — but they go for the traditional, the more brilliant.”
“There isn’t another shape that’s more popular than the round diamond. People are still asking for the princess, but I’ve seen a lowering of requests over a period of time now. And once customers realize the 1-carat princess looks like a three-quarter or smaller round brilliant, quite often the brides change their minds. They like the bigger look. Eventually, I guess, the princess is going to go the way the marquise did. Still, it’s a viable stone but not nearly as prevalent as it was in the past.
“If you show the princess and the round brilliant side by side, they’ll say, ‘Why does this look bigger?’ And by the same token, some buy the princess because it’s cheaper per carat. Some people want to have the bigger-size stone but are on a restricted budget.”
“It’s certainly mostly rounds. If we get calls for anything else, it’s more things like cushion, Asscher, radiant, that sort of shape. It’s certainly not marquise, pear or oval, but more in the square, cushion family. Most of the people who end up with that come in actually looking for it or the woman has told the guy that she likes something that’s more square or cushion shape. It’s not usually something that people get steered toward. Most of the time, they already have that idea in mind.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2014. To subscribe click here.
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