Back before the internet became popular, pretty much the only way to buy jewellery was to go to a local jeweller. The problem with that was that it was difficult to compare both price and quality to ensure what you were buying was good value. A lot of jewellers offered valuations<\/a>, but these were rarely worth the paper they were printed on.<\/p>\n Then, in the late 1990s, along came the internet, and consumers could not only compare price and quality of diamonds online, but the \u201ce-tailers\u201d who were selling diamonds were doing so at significantly smaller margins than traditional jewellery stores, meaning diamond consumers could buy a much better quality diamond at a much better price online.<\/p>\n At first, many companies in the US burst onto the scene, such as Blue Nile<\/a> and James Allen<\/a>, along with diamond forum and search engine Pricescope<\/a>. However, by the mid-2000s many retailers around the world were selling diamonds and jewellery online, including Australia.<\/p>\n Whilst brick and mortar jewellers for the most part loathed internet retailers, slowly most of them \u201cjoined the party\u201d and started selling online, which was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nowadays, it would be a huge exception to the norm for a jewellery retailer not to have any presence online, whether through a website or social media.<\/p>\n Funnily enough, the aforementioned pure-play online retailers now have at least one brick and mortar store, meaning there are only a handful of diamond and fine jewellery pure-play online retailers left, and buying jewellery \u201conline\u201d is no longer a dirty word.<\/p>\n When: <\/strong>Early to Mid 2000s<\/p>\n Diamond mining has always been marred in human rights abuses. However, in 2000, The Fowler Report<\/a> highlighted the link between the diamond industry and conflicts and wars in the third world. This lead to the adoption of the Kimberley Process<\/a> in 2003, a certification process designed to stop diamond mining funding conflict and wars.<\/p>\n Then in 2006, the movie Blood Diamond<\/a> hit the movie screens and the issue became front and centre. Suddenly, the diamond industry suddenly became the poster child of human rights abuses. More and more consumers were seeking guarantees that the diamond they were buying wasn\u2019t a \u201cblood diamond\u201d. To combat this, mining companies, especially those in Canada, started issuing certificates such as Canadamark <\/a>which were seen as an iron-clad guarantee of a non-conflict diamond. In addition, diamond-tzar Martin Rapaport<\/a> launched his own campaign to combat conflict diamonds.<\/p>\n However, over time, the initial uproar subsided, but the industry seemed to float from one crisis to another. Firstly, it was claims of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe<\/a>, then, more recently, it was the conflict in Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Whether or not these programs have done anything to reduce the problem of \u201cblood diamonds\u201d is a question for another day. In my experience, most consumers don\u2019t even think about a diamond\u2019s provenance, and those that do, aren\u2019t really concerned about their diamond being a \u201cblood diamond\u201d, rather they want a provenance guarantee more for emotional or sentimental reasons, for example, their partner was born in Canada.<\/p>\n When: <\/strong>2000s\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n As mentioned earlier, 25 years ago, the vast majority of diamonds and diamond jewellery sold had no certification whatsoever. However, in the absence of the bright lights of a jewellery store and a slick salesperson, internet retailers needed a way to prove the quality and value of the diamonds that they were selling. This came in the form of certification. Whilst diamond certification wasn\u2019t anything new, the internet certainly made it mainstream.<\/p>\n In the early to mid 2000s many diamond certification laboratories popped up, with some being less reputable than others. In Australia, this led to the so-called \u201ccertification wars\u201d, whereby one laboratory, DCLA<\/a> promoted their certificates at the expense of all others, backed by a small number of jewellers and wholesalers, including, much regrettably, Jogia Diamonds. This all blew up for them in 2007 when they issued a press release that vilified the entire industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Above: GIA and AGS Certificates<\/p>\n Throughout these \u201ccertification wars\u201d, the GIA<\/a>, who has been issuing diamond certificates for decades, increased their popularity. By 2015, many smaller laboratories had closed, others, such as EGL<\/a> had a ban<\/a> placed on them by diamond trading network Rapnet, and with GIA opening up labs in major cities around the world, diamond consumers increasingly saw GIA as the gold standard of diamond grading. This all lead to the situation we have today, with GIA holding a near monopoly on diamond grading. Again, whether this is a good or bad thing is a story for another day.<\/p>\n When: <\/strong>Early to Mid 2000s<\/p>\n In the late 90s and early 2000s, many countries around the world liberalised their trade policies and countries such as China were admitted to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In Australia, 2000 saw the introduction of the GST, which saw the federal wholesale sales tax scrapped, and a lot of duties and tariffs cut. This allowed for much cheaper imports, and reduced the price of jewellery overall, as the sales tax was cut significantly.<\/p>\n This had the effect of decimating the mass manufacturing of jewellery in Australia, as cheaper imports flooded the market. Up until then, it was not uncommon in Australia for large workshops with 20 or more jewellers to mass produce lower value jewellery to be sold in chain stores.<\/p>\n The jewellery industry still exists, however, in terms of manufacturing, most bench jewellers now provide a service \u2013 either repairs or the manufacture of one-off pieces. The loss of mass manufacturing workshops has meant that apprenticeship numbers have dwindled, as most independent or sole trader jewellers don\u2019t have the means to hire an apprentice. This has led to a jeweller shortage in some areas of the industry, which anecdotally is being filled by immigration.<\/p>\n When: <\/strong>Early to Mid 2000s<\/p>\n In 1998, the cut of a diamond was rarely discussed. Vague terms such as \u201cBelgian cut\u201d or \u201cRussian cut\u201d were commonly used. This was despite the fact that Marcel Tolkowsky published the book Diamond Design<\/a> in 1919.<\/p>\n In 1996, AGS Laboratories<\/a> was founded, with their certificates including a cut grade for round brilliant diamonds. Around the same time Garry Holloway<\/a> started to market his Ideal-Scope<\/a> online and in 2000, released the Holloway Cut Adviser<\/a>.<\/p>\n Throughout the early to mid 2000s, many tools were released to grade the cut of a diamond in a consumer friendly fashion, including:<\/p>\nBlood Diamonds<\/h3>\n
Certification<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.jogiadiamonds.com.au\/images\/giavsags.webp\")
<\/p>\nRise in Imports<\/h3>\n
Cut Grading<\/h3>\n