Lab Grown Diamonds – Blessing or Curse?

Reading Time: 5 minutes Think of lab grown diamonds as a replacement for natural diamonds? Worried about their impact on your traditional natural diamond sales? Think again! Lab grown diamonds open the opportunity for an exciting new market niche, focused on fashion and flair. Customers who might normally never consider a pair of 2-4 carat diamond earring studs, a diamond riviera necklace, or a large colored diamond cocktail ring may now level up with lab grown! Your customers may still choose natural diamonds for their important major pieces, such as engagement rings or anniversary bands. But in addition, they may seek to branch out, selecting additional fashion pieces in lab grown – large earrings, necklaces, cocktail rings – that they would not have normally considered. Instead of thinking of lab grown as a replacement for natural diamonds, consider an exciting new market focused on fashion and fun. Rather than viewing the high customer demand for lab grown as a threat to natural diamonds, why not leverage this market excitement into a separate, new market niche of opulent, highly desirable pieces, now for the first time within reach for customers who would not have considered them before? Tiffany has recently announced it will be offering a selection of large, unique colored lab grown diamonds. De Beers actually originally envisioned this role for the emerging lab grown market – not as competition, undercutting the prince of important natural diamonds – but as a second emerging new market, focused on fashion and style. Your customers already want diamonds. Fuel their desires with exciting new pieces, now within their reach. Excite your customers with these covetable options:

• Tennis “line” necklaces and bracelets. Who doesn’t love a great riviera or tennis necklace – or bracelet? This classic is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, now gender neutral, for men as well as women.
• Large diamonds. Prime Minister Modi of India last year presented a 7.5 carat lab grown diamond from Green Lab to First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Larger lab grown sizes are becoming increasingly available. Show your customers a large diamond pendant, cocktail ring, or earring studs, in sizes they would not have previously considered in natural diamonds.
• Red carpet drama! Chandelier and shoulder duster earrings in elaborate styles, hair ornaments and mini tiaras. The most coveted styles seen on the red carpet, now within reach.
• Color is the new frontier. Now that lab grown diamonds are becoming widely available in larger sizes, manufacturers are cultivating the most popular colors, especially pink, yellow and blue.
• Fancy shapes. Lab grown diamonds can be created in fancy cuts, including crescent, kite, shield, even in the shape of animals, such as horse heads or turtles. Diamonds are being cut in the shape of initials for monograms. The sky’s the limit!
• Hi Lo fashion. Coco Chanel famously combined couture suits and important jewelry with long multi strands of cultured – and even costume – pearls! The trend continues today. Natural diamonds will also have a special significance, especially for “important” jewelry. But why not add another option of lab grown as the “fun” diamond? It’s okay to be playful, to mix and match.

The Chinese symbol for “crisis” can also be translated as “opportunity”. Instead of viewing the rapidly expanding customer demand for lab growns as undercutting natural diamonds, leverage this opportunity into a profitable new market niche. Your customers have always wanted large, beautiful diamonds. Cater to their demands. Excite them with options they always have desired. Natural diamonds will always be cherished for important heirloom quality pieces. But customers can now fulfill their fashion fantasies – and explore new ones – with  imaginative options through the emerging world of lab grown. It’s a win-win!