Building successful businesses online.
Elefant Diamonds
Sparkle and Shine -- Online
Scoop:
Whether you are a dealer, retailer, or designer in the diamond business, chances are you know Elefant Diamonds. A premier diamond wholesaler in New York City, Elefant Diamond has become the number one destination for jewelers around the country. The company maintains a vast inventory of high quality diamonds and a friendly, knowledgeable staff.
Dedicated to exceptional customer care, Elefant Diamonds launched a user-friendly website, www.elefantdiamonds.com, back in 2001 to simplify the formerly cumbersome and time-consuming process of locating and ordering the perfect stone. Members use the site to browse the company's complete inventory at their convenience, find information about individual stones, and place orders online.
Says Fran Foxman Berg, Elefant Diamonds:
Quality inventory and exceptional customer service are the cornerstones of our business. We wanted to display both in the most prominent way and decided to build a website that would allow our customers to browse our huge product catalogue, locate the perfect stone, and order online. Ultimately we wanted to streamline the entire search and purchase process, saving both our customers and ourselves precious time and resources. Of course we were aware that the task was complex. After all, the site we had in mind would have to hold a large product base, update quickly on the front and back ends, and convey a sense of excellence and trust in the Elefant Diamonds brand. It would also have to allow for human intervention, in case customers needed extra help. We looked for an experienced partner to help us build such a site and received a recommendation for ECommerce Partners. When we first met with the agency’s representatives, we were impressed with their expertise and their understanding of our needs. The site they built for us has paid off handsomely and continues to serve us well. Fran Foxman Berg, Elefant Diamonds
Story:
Prior to launching the website, Elefant Diamonds’ sales process was quite intricate and demanding. First, prospects called in to ask for specific stones. Next staff members would perform an in-depth search of the inventory, filter out the relevant stones, and fax several options to the client who would then review, preselect and ask for GIA-certificates before ordering the diamond. Binding valuable client and wholesaler resources, the procedure proved long and unsatisfactory. That is why, in 2001, Elefant Diamonds decided to streamline the process creating an online site that would offer an overview of the entire available inventory including GIA certificates, and an online order capability.
Solution:
ECommerce Partners set out to create a high-quality, user-friendly B2B site. Ensuring that users would always have access to the latest inventory, they first integrated Elefant Diamonds in-house inventory management software, Genesis, with an online dynamic catalog. They also implemented advanced search to allow users to comb through the entire database by individual requirements. In a second phase, ECommerce Partners developed a propietary search algorithm to match stones for certain requirements like earings or diamonds sets, further dramatically streamlining the search and sales process. Then they included product information, such as GIA certificates that can be printed on the spot.
Next, they embedded ecommerce functionality so customers could order stones for delivery right from the site. Finally, ECommerce Partners made sure Elefant Diamonds kept customers engaged, even if the exact stone they were looking for was out of stock implementing a custom search rule to automatically broaden the search parameters and deliver relevant, if not exactly matching, results. They also included a feature to automatically alert sales representatives, once this situation occurs, so they can personally follow up with the customer and offer additional solutions.
Success:
www.elefantdiamonds.com provided convincing results. The user- friendly, sophisticated website with its dynamic content updates and advanced search capabilities has streamlined the entire wholesale operation, minimizing necessary resources and maximizing sales. The online presence has also increased the brand’s visibility, as more and more diamond buyers log on to see what is available and buy at their own pace and comfort.
Services:
To date, ECommerce Partners has provided Elefant Diamonds with the following services:
- ECommerce Development Module for Custom Cart Features
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- Unlimited Catalogue Management
- Secure Shopping Cart
- CRM
- Product Feeds to Multiple Sites
- Ongoing
