The Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) will launch a partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, enabling traders to sell goods online to businesses and consumers in global markets.
Some 150 bourse members have formed an online store that will sell diamonds on the retail site, IDE president Yoram Dvash said in an interview with Rapaport News Wednesday. Starting February 6, the business — operating out of a room inside the exchange in Ramat Gan, Israel — will sell to jewelers and dealers, before extending the service to consumers after a few months.
“It’s a big jump for us,” Dvash said. “You don’t need expansion or offices, or to fly over. You have hundreds of millions of potential customers.”
Transactions on Alibaba’s retail marketplaces totaled $547 billion in its last full fiscal year ending March 2017, the company reported.
The deal is similar to an arrangement the IDE has with online diamond retailer James Allen, under which bourse members group together to supply goods for the e-commerce company to sell.
Source Rapaport