Diamonds are hard, but they aren’t hard to buy.
Overview
Are diamonds actually a woman’s best friend? Diamonds are a symbol of love and are considered “forever” in culture. This is largely due to good marketing strategy (and his century-plus industry-dominant monopoly De Beers, which raised ethical issues).
Founded by Ajay Anandrare caratis known as the “Diamond Kayak,” which addresses the tension to buy diamonds without being duped (or from unethical sources) and the lack of openness in the supply chain and industry. is what you do.
He was dissatisfied with the approach he used to buy an engagement ring for his fiancée, so he decided to develop a fair marketplace for diamond buyers supported by blockchain, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and data science. started.
A typical buyer looking for the perfect ring for “The Question” will do a fair amount of research before making a purchase. As one of the most expensive purchases, this could rank right behind your first home or car.
In addition, various factors such as color, carat, cut, clarity and fluorescence can affect the price of a diamond on the market. The market is full of knowledge asymmetries, as gemmologists are often motivated to sell specific stones based on commissions or other sales incentives. Real clients are not taken into account by this.
Usage
Online store Rare Carat does not stock or promote its own diamonds. As users enter various parameters into the site (price, shape, carat, etc.), the platform populates the results with a number of related lists for overall price transparency and comparison with ratings from unbiased gemologists. increase. The user interface is similar to Kayak and Expedia, except instead of looking for hotels and flights, you’re looking for diamonds. Through free online information, the website also seeks to inform visitors about the diamond buying process.
In addition, rare carat announced Rocky, the first Diamond “chatbot” (powered by IBM’s Watson service). It helps customers find and make purchasing decisions in a way that’s similar to a brick-and-mortar store, with 100{ea2cba5bdf6fe62bbe85e24807814144a71e77d3ae7311fbc27a008558d1372c} unbiased transparency.
Rocky evaluates diamonds based on carat, cut, color, clarity, polish and depth to provide consumers with buying advice similar to that of a true gemmologist. Rocky’s sole motive is to offer the best rates to his clients according to the criteria they provide.
According to Anand, “The Rare Carat technology has accumulated a tremendous amount of data over the past four months, including 10 million data points on diamond prices and characteristics, over 2 million user queries, and over 100,000 messages. It’s using data, exchanging with users, and thanks to machine learning, Rocky continues to improve, too.Every day, gemmologists evaluate the bot’s work and feed that feedback into IBM’s Watson service for consumption. improving Rocky’s ability to identify the best offers for customers.
type of business
Rare Carat does not stock or sell its own diamonds, as maintaining objectivity was one of its primary concerns. The platform acts solely as a marketplace that connects providers and customers through open information exchange. Rare Carat’s earnings are not from commissions. It all comes from advertising.
target customer
Rare Carat doesn’t want to cater to the more affluent consumer segment who prefers to buy fine jewelry at stores like Tiffany’s and Cartier. Instead, they want to support a larger average millennial demographic. They are accustomed to online shopping simply because they want to save money.
Value Creation and Value Acquisition Strategy
In addition to providing information and price transparency, Rare Carat empowers diamond buyers by providing guidance from human gemmologists and a step-by-step buying process facilitated by chatbot Rocky. We aim to provide value. Rare Carat democratizes diamond buying using artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics and virtual reality. Previously, much of this process was shrouded in mystery and smoke.
Rare Carat’s goal is simply to help the typical millennial internet shopper make one of the most important purchases of their lives. Their value capture method is entirely ad-based and in order to maintain objectivity, they do not get paid for sending customers to specific businesses.
Opportunities and challenges
While they have laudable goals and an excellent value capture approach, being an ad-based company has some drawbacks. It Is difficult. Rare Carat pursues various options such as:
- Blockchain technology brings openness to an often immoral industry by allowing buyers to understand each gem’s mining and processing supply chain. This technology is the result of a collaboration with Everledger.
- Virtual reality is a new technology that Rare Carat plans to bring to its platform. This allows ring buyers to simulate the process of trying on jewelry and get an idea of what it will look like after purchase.
- The company’s chatbot, Rocky, will soon come with more Watson services, including Watson Vision, which can interpret diamond quality reports.
Conclusion
Rare Carat CEO Ajay Anand said chatbots can be very beneficial with the right business and use cases. “We find diamonds particularly well-suited to the media, given that they make highly organized decisions according to the well-known 4 Cs of carat, cut, color and clarity. Rocky has demonstrated expertise in the diamond buying decision-making process by helping beta testers make the right choices.
