De Beers Group announces an industry-leading auction platform. The new auction platform will allow customers to buy from De Beers online with greater ease and unprecedented levels of product data with greater transparency.
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The new platform provides customers with an improved bidding experience through a range of enhancements to functionality and to the user experience. The portal harnesses cutting-edge technology and incorporates a range of valuable insights garnered from customer feedback.
According to James Kirby, Senior Vice-President of De Beers Group Auctions, the diamond customers can expect an enhanced customer experience, an integrated portal, a customised experience, and a scalable and robust environment.
Registered Buyers can get an overview of all auctions that are happening on the portal. The “auctions ending today” page houses all the auctions due to close that day, enabling customers to access all auctions quickly and ensure they do not miss out on bidding opportunities.
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Price Protection
All Registered Buyers will have privy to the starting price of the lot. However, to protect their interests, only bidders will be given access to the lot price after they have placed their bids for the lot, thereby preventing non-bidders from accessing price data from the auctions.
While an auction is ongoing, bidders will be informed if their bids have met the reserve price. With the price protection and transparency on reserve prices in place, the preliminary bidding round has been eliminated, simplifying the process for the bidders and saving time. When the auctions are closed, bidders can refer to their bid history. The bid history reflects the pricing information of the lots they have placed their bids on, regardless of whether customers have won or been outbid.
Security
The diamond industry is built on trust, and the security of the digital platform is of utmost importance to Auctions so that Registered Buyers can place their bids on the platform with confidence. De Beers Group Auctions’ technology partner, Curtis Fitch, holds ISO 27001:2013 certification for Information Security Management, as certified by the globally recognized BSI, themselves accredited by leading body UKAS.
Lightbox, the lab-grown diamond brand launched by De Beers last year, will be available in select Bloomingdale’s and Reeds Jewelers, the company announced last week.
Steve Coe, Lightbox Jewelry CEO, told Forbes the initial trials will run up to six months. “If we get the positive response we are expecting from consumers we are looking forward to further expanding distribution soon after that.”
