In April, I relayed the results of GemFind’s first annual report aggregating data from the jewelers’ websites that the company manages; the report told us what diamonds consumers were clicking on the most—though not necessarily buying—when browsing jewelry online.
GemFind President and CEO Alex Fetanat told me at the time that his technology company, which he founded in 1999, wanted to make a habit out of publishing these reports, providing the industry with consumer data regularly.
A few weeks ago, he reached out to share results from the semi-annual report for 2018, detailing clicks for the first six months of the year (Jan. 1 through June 30).
Below, I share five of the most interesting points from the report; the entire analysis can be viewed on the GemFind website.
1. The overall profile of the diamond most searched for by consumers didn’t change from 2017, which is not surprising.
According to GemFind, consumers looked for a 1-carat, round, G color diamond with VS2 clarity and a Gemological Institute of America grading report, which is pretty much the same diamond most consumers were looking for last year.
New for the semi-annual report, however, was the inclusion of consumer preference for cut grade, with excellent coming in first (65 percent) of searches for diamonds bigger than 0.25 carats, followed by very good at 19 percent and good at 9 percent.
2. After G, the most searched for diamond color was …
H at 15 percent, followed closely by F (14 percent) and I (13 percent). All told, 59 percent of diamond searches were for stones between F and I in color.
The two highest diamond color grades, D and E, were clicked on by 8 and 11 percent of consumers, respectively.
Fetanat said he was surprised to see I-color diamonds finishing ahead of both D and E but noted that, “I is definitely not the greatest color, but it’s more affordable.”
3. After VS2, the most searched for diamond clarity was …
SI1 and VS1 were tied as the second most searched for clarities, garnering 18 percent of searches in the first six months of the year, followed by SI2 at 15 percent, VVS2 at 10 percent and VVS1 at 8 percent.
Very few consumers were looking for diamonds that were internally flawless—IF diamonds accounted for 4 percent of searches—or at the other end of the clarity spectrum. Only 8 percent of consumers looked for I1 diamonds and 1 percent for I2 diamonds.
