Buying an unmounted diamond or one set in jewelry online tends to make customers anxious. The high value, irregularity of such purchase and lack of diamond knowledge can make them anxious about an unsatisfactory result. Using diamond photos online is a popular way to reduce this anxiety, but how else does this benefit the buyer? On jewelry stores online, you must have read, “This image is for reference only”. Now, is it a useful reference for the diamond buyer?
When purchasing online, the main concerns of customers center around value and security of diamonds. Security problems include concerns about the seller’s integrity, fraudulent charges, the order safety, and return policy with very small print. Some jewelers try to address each of these customer concerns in their approach to the buying process.
Diamond value concerns tend to center around the buyer’s desire to confirm the stone’s characteristics meet their expectations. A photograph tends to be regarded as a reliable and simple method of ensuring many different diamond characteristics. Besides, customers rely on this more than a reputable diamond grading institute-issued certificate.
However, many customers do not know that a photograph does not do a good job of making significant characteristics known, except the shape. So, diamond retailers, dealers and brokers do not use photos for their purchases. For example, a diamond’s color in a photograph is translated through the camera, editing tool, and the viewer’s screen. The monitor is seldom color calibrated, which will make you see a different feature.
The diamond color grading process relies on subtle color differences, which are usually not possible to spot even when viewing the stone physically. So it is not wise to rely on a photograph to convey these differences in a precise way.
A diamond’s cut tends to be distorted in photography. The picture itself usually distorts the stone’s cut quality, plus any editing might artificially improve brightness, brilliance or other cut features. The process of photography even distorts a diamond’s clarity because it tends to obscure some clarity features.
For the above-mentioned reasons, some jewelry industry players do not utilize photography of the diamonds they buy or offer for sale. Rather, they use consultants, who can answer questions concerning a diamond. They can offer alternative recommendations too, or challenge the things a buyer is assuming. This approach results in a much more satisfied buyer and better purchase decisions.