VRAI's Melrose showroom in Los Angeles.
The jewelry store experience has traditionally been defined by service, luxury, and milestones. For years, especially in the diamond market, legacy jewelers like Tiffany's, Cartier, and Bvlgari, amongst many others, have led the creation of the diamond shopping experience. However, times are changing, and consumers are seeking sustainable and transparent options; retail sales of products with ESG (Environment, Sustainable, Governance)-related claims have grown at 6.4% over the past four years, 1.7 percentage points higher than non-ESG products.
It's, therefore, no surprise that lab-grown diamond jeweler, VRAI
The Leap From Online To In-Store
VRAI is the consumer arm of its parent company, Diamond Foundry, which was founded in 2012 as a producer of lab-grown diamonds and has raised over $350 million in funding. Its main competitors are companies like Brilliant Earth and Blue Nile, which combined have over 60 stores in the US, according to ChainXY. VRAI started as an online brand but opened pop-ups in cities all over the US and Canada in 2017. However, it wasn't until the pandemic that the company started to see the benefit of having a physical location.
VRAI opened its Toronto showroom on June 1.
"We had a service called virtual appointments, where we have diamond experts on a Zoom call, and we show the different rings and the diamonds, and we walk the customers through that experience. That offering grew five times during the pandemic. It was incredible to see that level of interaction with our customers, and that inspired us to move into retail just after the pandemic," shared Mona Akhavi, VRAI's President.
Over the past few years alone, the company has opened 13 locations; four in the US, six in China, one in London, one in Madrid, and the latest in Toronto. China was a unique early expansion for the company due to its relationship with a cut and polishing workshop in the country. "Consumers there are different. There was much more doubt around the particulars of lab-grown diamonds versus mining. Legacy luxury brands also have a big footing in China. It's a tough market to break into if you're a digital-first brand, so that became a huge factor for us to start a retail location. We wanted to immediately tell the story of the diamonds and allow people to experience them," Akhavi stated.
The Canadian Market
The Toronto showroom is located at 111 Yorkville Ave.
VRAI still has plenty of room to grow in the US, but it recently decided to enter Canada. And it appears to have been the right decision – its new Toronto showroom was the brand's best-performing store in the first two weeks. A few driving factors behind this include a lack of similar "sustainable" diamond options, a lack of innovative retail experiences, and the strength and brand awareness of their online sales in the market. It also coincided with the company's launch of a program called "Cut For You," which allows consumers to buy a rough diamond and cut and polish it in up to 30 different shapes.
VRAI's Toronto showroom, and all its showrooms, are designed like a gallery, with the products displayed in glass cases along the walls and private rooms for customers to have appointments with sales associates. The brand experience is just as much about the education and interaction shoppers have with its staff as it is about the product itself.
The options in Canada for lab-grown and sustainable jewelry are limited. For instance, Diamonds Direct, a Canadian diamond jeweler, sells both lab-grown and mined, but its selection is minimal. The only other options for the Canadian consumer are in department stores like Holt Renfrew or larger wholesalers, meaning a reasonably generic shopping experience.
That said, more sustainable jewelers are rising in popularity in Canada. One example is Sarah Bijoux, a Montreal-based company that uses locally sourced materials, mainly from Ontario and Quebec, including some created from metal scrap. The brand has seen around 20-30% sales growth from 2020 to 2022 and opened its first showroom this month on Montreal's Saint-Laurent Boulevard.
The Melrose Ave showroom features similar glass displays to all VRAI locations.
Data-Driven Decision-Making
Like other digital-first brands, VRAI is a big proponent of using its online data to drive its showroom location selection and merchandising.
"As we open new stores, we've seen that conversion in that location increases – in the city and its vicinity. We attribute that to a few things - consumer confidence goes up immediately as you have a physical location, the digital-only brand becomes real and physical, and immediately, even if they don't come into the store, they feel like they have somewhere to go to experience the diamond. We also see more engagement on social media as word of mouth starts to spread, and since the location is there, it naturally lifts our online traffic. And then we often start seeing shorter sales cycles," said Akhavi. Because the product is at a high price point, it usually takes a while for shoppers to make a purchase. However, they see that timeline decreases when a store opens in the market.
The company also uses the info to home in on what product to showcase and send to each location. For instance, it sees various geographical trends like demand for higher karats on the west coast.
So, what does this mean for the lab-grown diamond industry? There's a lot of opportunity, and like all digital-first retail today, data-driven in-store experiences are becoming more valuable.
VRAI will be opening a showroom in Boston this summer, moving its NYC showroom, and has plans for two more in Texas and Florida by the end of the year, with continued growth into the future.
