Why It's Not Enough To Pop The Question With A Diamond

A diamond is no longer forever. Modern expectations for engagement rings have proven more fluid than the future heirlooms sought by earlier generations. Just like virtually every other purchase, diamond rings frequently change hands online. It’s still a shaky time for the diamond industry, but the ring market on EBay has grown 58% over the last five years, and digital jewellery consignment has become safer and more popular. The purchase of engagement rings has come under pressure, in part, from the shift by millennial shoppers. The 18 to 35 demographic is marrying older than GenXers and Baby Boomers. Millennial, famously, have less to spend in their twenties than prior generations did. Retailers are understandably concerned about the next generation’s approach. Kieron Hodgson, a commodities and mining analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co. said the traditional diamond engagement ring found at a conventional jeweler has been losing ground to vintage or bespoke alternatives. A ring from a big-name diamond retailer where mass-produced, identical rings line displays loses some luster in this context. “We’re seeing millennial want something that no one else has,” jewellery e-consigner Gleem & Co’s co-founder Casey Sullivan added. The 2016 Diamond Insight Report from De Beers estimated that millennial spent $26 billion on diamond jewellery across the United States, China, Japan, and India last year. But Hodgon noted that this includes a variety of diamond purchases, not just big-name retailer diamond rings. The reason for this, he said, is simple: The generation that doesn’t want to show up to a party wearing the same dress as anyone else also wants to put on different jewellery.