Diamond Jewelry Entrepreneur-ing

Rahul Banka was in finance for 13 years before deciding to enter the jewelry startup scene. He founded Eves24, a diamond jewelry curator and an online service that will allow you access to their library of jewelry and pay for it as you use.

The prices of jewelry pieces offered will go from 50,000 rupees to 25 lakhs rupees.

The piece you see here (the green and diamond choker, earrings piece) may retail for around 5 lakh rupees, but with Eves24 it’s 19,500 rupees plus taxes. Basically a piece which retails for 10 lakh rupees, will cost you 32,000 rupees plus tax for three days. It used to be seven days. Mr. Banka says upon Eves24 clients’ requests it was reduced to three.

By the way, don’t ever call it a jewelry rental business. It’s a misnomer Mr. Banka feels in the case of Eves24. He prefers to call member access to the library of jewelry as ‘pay per use’. He has a point. 32,000 for 3 days is not cheap. And rent implies something with a minimal budget.

“I’m not trying to diminish market for jewelry purchasing, what I’m trying to offer is a solution to conundrums like using jewelry as an investment and never using your jewelry because it’s too outdated, or won’t match your modern attire.

Jewelry as an investment is a poor choice. Because when you buy jewelry worth ten thousand rupees, you’re paying for labor, jeweler's margin and taxes in addition to the precious metal and stones. It’s actually a better investment to directly buy gold worth ten thousand rupees. Also why limit your wardrobe based on the few precious pieces of accessories you have. With access to a library like ours you can wear any color and style and choose the jewelry based on the attire - not the other way around.

For instance this piece of jewelry in the image, who was the supplier?

This piece belongs to a diamond jewelry supplier of ours based out of Mumbai. They are our business partner. To keep a check on the price, the big green stones used in this piece are semi-precious emerald as the usage of precious emerald would had increased the prices substantially. The semi-precious stones are sourced from Mumbai itself.

How long does it take to negotiate price on a piece? What kind of skills do you need as a jewelry negotiator?

The prices are not negotiated piece by piece, generally the value of the product depends on the rate of gold, rate of various qualities of diamond, stones and other gems and the making charges prevailing in the market at that particular time. These rates are pre-negotiated once in a while and then any of the product procured is priced basis the quantum of gold, diamond, etc. Whenever the prices are negotiated, one needs to be update about the prevailing procurement prices.

Skill sets required to negotiate rates are similar to any business negotiation wherein it is important to know the prevailing prices and the likely demand supply situation.

After price is agreed upon what happens? How is it paid for?

We add the jewelry piece to our collection and whatever usage fee we earn from the customer, a part of it is shared with the supplier.

How many years of practice is needed to be in jewelry business? You have switched careers, how long did it take you?

One should be well versed with the tricks of the trade. Like what are the parameters in which the jewelry is sold, risk perspective for the products sold to client and how to secure yourself from such risks.

Learning the nitty-gritties of the jewelry business would have taken a lot of time so I partnered with experts which helped me get a faster grip of this sector. We have put in certain checks and balances which has helped us ensure quality of our products and also manage risk in the business.

The biggest challenge for me was to find the right supply partner, it took me around 12 months to finalize a deal with them. Once that happened, the learning experience started on a daily basis.

Being in finance required me to deal with corporate clients and more around numbers and percentages, but now in jewelry B2C, products and designs needs to be focused on and one needs to use a more creative skill set versus a more logical skill set. The transformation is challenging but that’s the fun. Honestly, I am still adjusting to the new industry and retailing business.

When India has more demand for gold than diamond jewelry, why would you offer diamond jewelry?

[Author note: It’s easier to manage diamonds than gold - easier to keep track of quality of diamonds through techniques like diamond counting. Gold does not lend itself to such techniques to manage quality.]

Why we chose diamond jewelry to start with…the answer is diamond jewelry is more luxurious then gold jewelry. As lifestyle improves, a consumer graduates to experiencing diamonds over gold. Also the profit margin on diamonds jewelry is higher than for gold. By the way, we shall soon be introducing gold jewelry in our portfolio.