De Beers Group Auctions Expands Digital Selling Presence

De Beers Group’s Auctions business announced the introduction of a new selling proposition that will give its Registered Buyers access to diamond purchases 24 hours, seven days a week. This new selling proposition, known as the Buy platform, is an e-commerce offering where Registered Buyers can make an immediate, direct and straightforward purchase from a range of rough diamonds at any time and from anywhere, providing them with a further purchase option in addition to the existing limited-time auctions offering.

The launch of the new Buy platform is one of several initiatives that De Beers Group’s Auctions business, which sells around 10% of De Beers Group’s rough diamond supply, is undertaking to give its Registered Buyers additional flexibility.

The Buy platform has been designed to be an intuitive and accessible way for Registered Buyers to purchase rough diamonds. Users simply select the products that they want to buy, adding them to a virtual basket before completing the purchase at a virtual checkout. Once the purchase has been completed, users will be directed to an Order confirmation page displaying the details of the order along with a unique order number.

 Alastair Bickerstaff, Head of Product Development and Sales at De Beers Group Auctions, said: “We are constantly seeking additional ways of meeting our customers’ needs in a fast-moving world, and we are excited to launch the Buy platform as it will provide an additional easy-to-access channel for our Registered Buyers to source what they want and when they want. We are especially pleased to introduce this additional flexibility for our Registered Buyers in light of the current COVID-19 situation.”

 The Buy platform is designed to be easy to use and it comes with a range of useful features, including:

• Search: directs the user quickly to their desired product with the help of keywords
• Filter: users are able to shortlist the products based on popular product characteristics
• Favourites: storing all of a user’s favourite products in one page

The Buy platform will offer Registered Buyers the opportunity to purchase goods ranging from very high-end to low-end, with prices visible to customers at the point of purchase.