Today, for most jewellers, sourcing solitaires is a very tedious and time-consuming task. In such a scenario, buying solitaires online would be an idea to scoff at, a distant, unfulfilled dream. . But B2B portal www.tradersdiamonds.com is well on its way to making that dream come true, making the process of sourcing solitaires for jewellers as convenient as paying bills online. %% Set up by Mr. Srinivasa Gopalan, a seasoned entrepreneur in information technology and founder CEO of Lister Technologies and Mr. Mithun Sacheti, a GIA educated jeweller gemmologist who belongs to well-known jewellery family, Jaipur Gems, Traders Diamonds is a pioneer in the online trading of diamonds for jewellers.%% Mithun Sacheti, Director, Traders Diamonds gave Roli Gupta details about the Traders Diamonds brand, its raison d’etre and its vision for the future…%%

RG: What is Traders Diamonds?$$ MS: TradersDiamonds is a B2B website that sells certified loose diamonds to jewellers & other members of the diamond trade. This “exclusive trade-only” website allows traders to browse to a selection of close to 80,000 solitaires of every colour, cut, clarity grade combination in carat weight starting from 0.30cts to 10cts and above. Our model is based on aggregating the diamond inventory of manufacturers across the world and bringing it directly to jewellers in India using our website– www.tradersdiamonds.com. %% RG: Why did you set up Tradersdiamonds.com?$$ MS: In the course of doing business in India for the last few years, I have met a whole lot of jewellers who get a lot of solitaire enquiries but they invariably prefer to let the business pass because solitaires are extremely time consuming and expensive for most jewellers – firstly because they are a high price item and secondly because of the various cut, clarity, color and size combinations, a jeweller will have to keep a very large number of pieces to be able to offer his customers a wide range which essentially means large investments in inventory.%% Secondly, there are more than 5000 manufacturers in the world. A jeweller’s chances of getting the best priced diamond are proportional to the number of manufacturers whose inventory information he has. The market is highly fragmented and unorganized. So getting this inventory information is physically impossible. That means the jeweller often ends up buying a more expensive diamond, purely for lack of organized information. This was another opportunity area waiting to get tapped.%% Thirdly once he receives the enquiry, the jeweller spends a lot of time calling different manufacturers to find the right solitaire for his customer. So, time that a jeweller would typically like to spend with customers is spent on diamond procurement. This again is a huge pain point with jewellers.%% I have been in the US, where I have seen how online models have benefited the diamond trade. And I have seen how online companies which aggregate information on flights or financial products have changed industry dynamics in India. %% So there is a need and we felt that an online model would address that need. And that is how TradersDiamonds.com came into being.%%

RG: What is its USP? What makes it different from the others in the same field? What sort of competition does Traders Diamonds have?$$ MS: TradersDiamonds.com has no like competition, as of today - one which offers an aggregated inventory online. That said, we do look forward to having that kind of competition. Then there will be more people working together to change the mindset of jewellers and convincing them about the benefits of an online model.%% Competition however comes from the other diamond suppliers. There are basically two types. There are the manufacturers themselves, many of whom have a trade website as well. But their inventory is far limited as compared to ours and that gives us a huge edge. Then there are the brokers and wholesalers. Again, their database is limited to a few vendors and we can offer a far larger range of options. Secondly, our users can easily access our inventory whereas they can only call to get information from the brokers and wholesalers. In both cases, our larger inventory helps us to frequently find a lower priced diamond. Then, there are a few other trade portals which typically serve as aggregators. However these are subscription based and the subscription costs are fairly high. So a small jeweller who has only a few transactions may not find them expensive. Our model however is purely brokerage based and there is no subscription fee. %% In addition to that, we have created a website which makes it extremely easy to search for diamonds. We also have a dedicated customer service team to help the jewellers with their requirements. %% Our association with foreign manufacturers gives us another USP in terms of inventory of fancy shaped diamonds. We are far better positioned to offer a range of options in most of the popular fancy shapes, even in large sizes. %% Finally, we have a dedicated team of GIA trained gemmologists. This team offers diamond advisory services to the jewellers, helping them with the finer technical issues. There are various issues like the grading of Zimbabwean stones, which jewellers are unclear about. Our advisory service often comes to their rescue. %% RG: How do you plan to position it?$$ MS: Our positioning is very simple. We want to be the one –stop shop for all kinds of diamonds and solitaire requirements for all kinds of jewellers. Once a jeweller comes to us, he need not go anywhere. %% We don’t want to be labeled as just an online retailer for the internet savvy jeweller. We have combined the advantages of the internet with good old diamond expertise and offline measures to be able to offer the best range of diamonds to all kinds of jewellers. %%