Kaye HartmanSince the inception of our company, we have been trying to overcome most jewelers’ rebuff of Moissanite. For the longest time, fine jewelry retailers wouldn’t touch lab-grown gemstones, even diamonds. They viewed them as inferior products just as they view rhinestones and beads. However, last year, out of the 6 years of selling Moissanite exclusively, we’ve seen a jump of over 300% in our retail sales and reading how lab-created diamond dominated the sales of jewelry gifts last holiday season led us to wonder if other Moissanite sellers have experienced the same.
Since there are no councils – that we know of – that care to know how the sale of Moissanite is compared to any other lab-created gemstones, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to reach out to other retailers to ask how their last 3 years of selling this gemstone has been.
As expected, some retailers are very apprehensive of sharing their data since they view us as a competitor and not an independent body who is just collecting data. Some thought our interview is a prelude to a sales pitch of our manufactured products, but I’m glad that most are zealous to share their experience, their thoughts of the industry and the reason behind choosing to sell Moissanite over other natural or man-made gemstones.
We tried to reach out to big box retailers such as Macy’s, Kohls and JC Penney to independent sellers on Etsy, Amazon and eBay and a few brick and mortar stores that sell Moissanite jewelry. It’s not a surprise for our request of information to fall on deaf ears with the big box retailers, but we found out that 76% of independent retailers have seen a steady increase in sales of loose stones and ready made Moissanite jewelry in the past 3 years.
Most did not expect that their holiday sales in 2020 would be staggering compared to previous years, and definitely did not expect their sales in 2021 to beat the holiday revenues of 2020. They, like us, thought that the high sales of Moissanite in 2020 was a fluke given most people were unable to travel during this year due to the pandemic and used their budget to purchase luxury goods instead. But seeing the even greater jump in revenue from last year’s holiday season made us wonder if the sales of Moissanite have any connection to the rise in sales of lab-created diamond.
Most of the independent stores’ sales of Moissanite are from everyday jewelry ensembles and gifts such as stud earrings, bracelets, pendants, eternity wedding bands and a small percentage of engagement rings. In our experience, 89% of the people who inquired and bought our ready-made and customized jewelry pieces are below the age of 48. 100% of them answered “price” and “practicality” as the main reason why they chose to buy Moissanite over diamond jewelry, even lab-created.
35% of our sales are from loose stones and 60% of the consumers’ reason is to replace a center stone that they lost or they want to upgrade their jewelry from cubic zirconia. We sold 336 engagement rings last year and about a third of the orders are from people who said the Moissanite ring is a temporary engagement ring until they can afford diamond, while the rest said they are using it as their official engagement ring and again used the words “more practical” and “affordable” in their answers.
About half of our clients who ordered wedding bands own a diamond wedding band that they prefer to wear for special occasions, but chose a Moissanite eternity ring for everyday use so they will not be as heartbroken if they lose a stone as it is much affordable to replace than diamond. 91% of our patrons, apart from the buyers of engagement rings, previously owned Moissanite jewelry before their purchase and are aware of how close Moissanite’s quality and characteristics to diamond or prefer colored Moissanite over other colored gemstones.
What surprised me is when questioned why they chose to buy their jewelry online, all of them answered that Moissanite is not available at their local jewelry shops and they see more choices of styles available online, while the people who knew that Moissanite is available in some big-box stores prefer to have their jewelry personalized or customized.
I believe that last holiday’s sale of lab-created diamonds demonstrated how consumers are more accepting of man-made gemstones than most jewelers originally thought, but I can say from personal experience of insurmountable rejection from jewelry store owners that the sales of Moissanite is still far less than lab-created diamond only because jewelers are more open to sell synthetic diamonds at their stores than Moissanite.
Although it is still pretty early and the data we collected is scarce, to cement the fact that consumers, especially the younger generations, are more accepting of Moissanite once they are made aware that it is the best diamond alternative, I think it is imprudent to ignore the fact that the spiraling inflation that is happening globally are pushing consumers to find ways to stretch their budget. And while jewelers are still resisting to offer more practical alternatives to their fan base, the sale of Moissanite online will only grow in the coming years.
For more information email info@premiummoissanite.com or visit premiummoissanite.com and themoissaniteshop.com.
