Israeli Diamond industry going the e-commerce route in a big way - how do Indian companies compare

In an interesting development, which further reinforces the importance of the role the internet has to play in the modern diamond trade, the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) group of companies is helping the Israeli diamond industry utilize the power of the World Wide Web to full advantage through their “Together Works” program.

As part of this program, the Israeli companies are being given free professional consultation on everything – right from website development and online marketing tools to creating web content and drafting terms and conditions.

The response to this program has been tremendous and a large number of companies are participating in this. Clearly they realize that an online business helps them to reach out to far more customers at a substantially lower cost.

While the internet revolution was expected sooner or later; thanks to the precedent set by American companies, the process of change was hastened by the economic crisis as companies looked out for ways to become leaner and more cost effective.


The American diamond industry already has a substantial e-commerce footprint and now Israel is taking massive strides to get there. Where does the Indian industry stand in the middle of all this? India is the world’s largest exporter of cut and polished stones but what about our position in the online stakes.

India is not doing too badly either. We don’t have an IDI to lend a helping hand but thanks to being the IT capital of the world, a lot of Indian companies have set up their websites. Most of these are fairly basic but a few have advanced functionality too.

The biggest challenge however is not about technological capability. It’s about wholeheartedly adopting the online way – truly believing in the advantages of an e-commerce business and molding other business practices accordingly. We often talk about changing consumer mindsets. The bigger challenge is for the trade to change their mindset.

Once we can do that it will just be a matter of time before Indian diamond companies rule the e-commerce business as well. Sphere: Related Content