Here’s a story I’m sure you can relate to: I was sitting in my car at the end of a working day and set the navigation app on my phone to take me home. I’ve taken the same route almost every day for over a decade, yet I found myself relying more on my navigation app to give me the most updated, real-time path to get me home.
This got me thinking. But we’ll come back to that later…
Hi, my name is Mahiar and I’m the CEO of UNI Diamonds, a data and technology company specializing in solutions for the diamond industry. A year ago, we launched a series of data products that provide market data—in real time—to professional traders across the world. This includes pricing, supply and demand trends, rarity index, and much more.
One of the questions we’ve been asked repeatedly by experienced diamantaires is “Do I really need UNI’s products to know the price of a 1 ct. round H SI1 3Ex diamond?”
Of course, I get it. When you’re a professional diamantaire, you know the prices because you deal with them every day. But there’s a catch: A diamond buyer’s view of the market is limited because the industry is structured as a network of end-to-end personal relationships. In other words, when we buy the same diamonds from the same sellers, we only see a portion of the market. We’re not seeing the macro changes such as overall supply and demand that sooner or later will impact our stock and inventory.
Here’s where it gets even more interesting.
Our ability to see changes over time is limited. Yes, it’s easy to see when prices go up or down week after week, but it’s tricky to know what happened in the past three or six months—not to mention a year back. Today, we can easily see how global events affect the price of diamonds. Such information may have a huge impact on scheduling the purchase of diamonds. This translates to significant savings.
No doubt about it, our industry has done amazing things, and 2022 was a year to remember. However, when I look at what’s going on around us in other industries and see how data and technology have helped organizations make that leap into the modern age, it fuels my imagination and the imagination of everyone at UNI. Today, we have hundreds of buyers and sellers trading on our online platform. Those same customers are benefiting from getting their diamonds shipped to them the next day, using our data to make smarter buying decisions, understand a diamond’s origin, see the supply and demand for stones in the market today, and track those diamonds to their final destination, while also using augmented reality on our retailer app to show their client how the diamond is going to look on their finger, ear, or neck. We do all this, and so much more, FOR NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE!
Going back to my car: The navigation app shows me the same route from my office to my home. However, on this occasion I took the chance and drove home without it. Within minutes I found myself stuck in an unexpected traffic jam! It was at this moment that I realized, once and for all, that data and technology can take the navigation burden away and allow me to focus on driving.
This exact logic applies to our business.