Buying An Engagement Ring Online

Buying Engagement Rings Online With Confidence

Buying engagement rings online when I was growing up in the 70′s would have been something I’d have expected to see on the Jettsons – the futuristic cartoon series.

My earliest memory of “jewelry shopping” in those days was of me as a kid hanging on to my grandma’s frock tail as she entered the local jewelry store. She knew the owner by name (probably they went to the same church) and she seemed quite content to spend a long time trying on various pieces.

I wondered then why grandma had interest in those shiny objects which to me looked more like toys than accessories for grown-ups.

The Retail Landscape Has Changed

Today, shopping online is widely accepted. In China where I live, I once had to buy a box of Kellogg Cornflakes from Taobao – one of the largest e-commerce sites here. This was because I was jonesing for cereal and couldn’t find it in the local supermarkets.

Similarly, buying engagement rings online is easy and convenient. Online jewelry shops are all over the net, showing off their full-color and high-resolution images of their diamonds.

All you need to do is choose the carat, color, clarity and cut, enter your financial information and shipping address and voila.  Sometime later you receive a nicely packaged ring. However…

Watch Out For Scams

Buying engagement rings online is a potential minefield. For one thing, just about anyone can get a credit card merchant account, put up an online jewelry store and be in business. I’ve read of fraud sites passing off cubic zirconia as diamonds and costing customers in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some other notable scams include selling you treated diamonds. These diamonds are susceptible to breakage. Or a seller may duplicated a genuine diamond lab grading report or fabricate one from scratch. You can read more about diamond scams here.

Tips For Buying Diamonds Online

So as a potential customer, you need to deal only with trustworthy online jewellery stores. And I have two for you – Amazon and JamesAllen.com. Both have a sterling reputations, have been in business a long time and offer a refund to unsatisfied customers.

James Allen also offers some added features such as free shipping and virtual loupe, so that you can view your engagement ring in the same manner a jeweler would see it. In case there is a structural problem with your jewelery, you cans end it back to their office to be repaired or replaced.

They free also offer free prong tightening, re-polishing, rhodium plating and cleaning for the life of your jewelry

Secondly, learn the basics by reading my engagement rings guides. As the old saying goes – “knowledge is power”.

Thirdly – one of the primary ways of buying engagement rings online (or offline) with confidence is getting an authentic  diamond grading lab report with your purchase.  This is a must.

Buying engagement rings online is really ‘”blind purchasing”.  Having a report allows you to compare the diamond you are thinking about with others on the market. All diamond grading reports are not equal so you want to ensure that you only buy diamond engagement rings “certified” by the big 3 – GIA, AGS, and GCAL.

You can read about diamond grading reports by independent third evaluators.