Do Jewelry Consumers Care About Traceability?

The diamond industry, which is notoriously averse to change, is facing a new challenge when it comes to documenting a stone’s provenance: a lack of interest from customers. A 2024 report from McKinsey & Company declared that “diamond producers should continue investing in marketing and technology to ensure traceability while telling the unique story of their stones.” However, the reality for retailers is less clear-cut. 

Asking for proof 

Anthony Mock, owner of Mock & Co. in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, researched multiple companies that provide traceability certification, because he expected his customers to want that. However, he found very few interested clients. 

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, close to 30 years, and I can probably count on my hand how many times a customer asked me for a Kimberley [Process] certificate or an origin [for a] stone,” Mock says. 

In Annapolis, Maryland, Constance Polamalu has had similar experiences. Most of the customers who ask about traceability are Millennials, reports the chief operating officer of Zachary’s Jewelers. 

“There are still some people who grew up in a time when there was a very popular, prominent movie,” Polamalu says, referring to 2006’s Blood Diamond. “But beyond that, I don’t see a ton of it. It comes from this well-meaning desire to feel good about something, to feel good about their purchase.” 

Polamalu says her customers trust her, and she has never had anyone press her for documentation. “I have said it’s actually harder for me to buy diamonds outside of the Kimberley Process than it is to buy diamonds within the Kimberley Process.” 

Trust is also important for clients of Matt O’Desky, owner of The Diamond Room, which has two locations in Texas. He rarely gets asked about traceability, and the only guarantees anyone has requested from him have been verbal.  

“It’s never something I’ve been asked to put in writing or put on an appraisal or anything, [except for] two clients who specifically asked for Canadian diamonds,” he says. Clients will bring it up if a retailer has a marketing program that highlights traceability, he adds, “but if you don’t have it, no one’s going to ask for it.”  

Price vs. provenance 

There are some generational differences, says Mock, who has found that “younger people are starting to ask [about traceability] more” — though they’re mainly concerned about price. “They don’t even want a Gemological Institute of America (GIA) natural stone. They’re like, ‘Well, I just wanted it to be affordable.’” 

Polamalu agrees: Despite “buzzwords about sustainability, about traceability, about ethics,” she hasn’t seen any measurable uptick in requests for traceability or any changes in purchasing behavior. People make a show of talking about sustainability, she says, “but at the end of the day, I think it’s more financial than anything.” 

Lab-grown attitudes 

For O’Desky, requests about provenance are more frequent with synthetic stones. 

“I’ve had more people interested in where lab diamonds are being grown than where their naturals are being mined,” he says. “I would have specific people say, ‘I don’t want anything from China. I don’t want anything from Russia. I don’t want anything from India.’ I would have more people specify that than I’ve ever gotten with natural in 20-plus years.” 

Yet most of the requests Polamalu gets for synthetic stones focus on price rather than traceability.  

“For some time, there was a lot of talk about lab-grown, and people moving to lab-grown, allegedly because of the sustainability,” she says. “And I think that was really just a talking point. I see [with] the younger generation, if they choose to move toward lab-grown, it’s price-dependent. It’s got nothing to do with the ethics.” 

The latest developments 

Diamond-tracing technology has changed a lot in recent years.  

“[Suppliers will] give you a card that has a QR code, and it’ll let you know the origin of the stone,” says Mock, adding that 10 or 20 years ago, retailers had to rely on wholesalers’ claims of ethical sourcing. “Now I can put the QR code in the bag.”  

Mock is enthusiastic about traceability innovations, and he says younger customers may swing back toward buying mined stones if they feel more confident about provenance. 

“That’s going to be what wins over this younger generation,” he maintains. “We’re going back to buying natural stones. So with more proof of how that was produced, I think that the younger generation will be more willing to spend $6,000 or $7,000.” 

Polamalu finds the idea of traceability tech “very intriguing,” but says her clients haven’t shown interest in it so far. “I’ve seen some blockchain. I loosely understand that it’s built upon the same principles of Bitcoin, for just easy understanding. But a lot of that’s not really consumer-facing…so I don’t know how it’s going to affect the consumer landscape. I haven’t had a single customer ask me to prove anything through blockchain or through a QR code. We might offer it as a sales tool, but I don’t have anybody requesting it or requiring it.” 

Tech and trust 

Traceability tech can be reassuring, especially when building trust with a customer who is unfamiliar with a store or a brand, says marketing professor Thomaï Serdari, director of the luxury and retail MBA program at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. 

“This is precisely when technology can bring added value, an added layer of trust, which can bring peace of mind along with detailed contextual information that satisfies the customer as much as the aesthetics of the piece does,” Serdari says. 

While blockchain “had an awkward start” because it requires a certain level of technological acumen, she continues, retailers can use all types of technology to offer this peace of mind. 

If a customer is already looking for traceable stones, being able to provide that authentication will make customers feel more secure, affirms Federica Levato, senior partner at Bain & Company and leader of the company’s fashion and luxury practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). 

“For consumers, it’s a ‘nice to have,’” she reflects. “And it’s further reassurance for brands.” Conversely, if the brands a retailer carries “don’t follow regulations for labor and traceability of products, then your reputation is under scrutiny and under attack.” 

Traceability tech may also be more important for Millennials and Gen Z consumers, Serdari suggests, since these two cohorts “happen to be well-versed in technology” and “may even have opinions as to the efficacy of each type of technology in enabling full supply-chain transparency.” 

Main image: David Polak/ChatGPT