The following article was learned by secret shopping firms and help the jeweller business.

For dozens of years, jewellers had liked the position of being the "keepers" of the knowledge on the subject of diamonds and gems. They stood behind jewellery counters and shared small morsels of information regarding jewels to consumers. The jeweller appeared to be speaking down to the purchaser, making them feel as if they ought to be thankful to even be in the shop or touch the valuable gems in the display case. This monopoly of information went together with the monopoly of supply. The only real way you might get a diamond or valuable precious stone was to buy in a jewellery store.

The costs were artificially high with markups of a hundred percent to 300% of wholesale costs.

The factors that differentiated stores included the flamboyant decorations, the fancy display cases, and intricate storefronts. Life was straightforward and really profit-making for the jeweller. The buyer came in, the jeweller declared this is what you can buy, and the customer paid heavily because they'd no alternatives. Are you able to recall any poor jewellers before the millennium change in the year 2k? It was about this time the most feared word in the jeweler's vocabulary started to change the industry for good. That word was Web . All of a sudden there were rivals springing up who could supply diamonds and jewellery sent to your door, commonly at costs lower than could support the high overhead of the jewellery store. Nonetheless the most extreme concern was the concealed awareness of diamonds and dear precious stones was available to any buyer who needed to spend a short period of time researching on the web. Rather than simply asking for an one-carat diamond, the patron now has an in-depth list of needs that all but guarantees that nothing in the shop will meet their needs, irrespective of the cost. Spending hours of work to find the particular diamond the purchaser wants and then paying the shipping and insurance to get it shipped next day is just more work than they'd like to do for a sale. As an alternative they moan and wish for the return of days long gone, when Ma Bell controlled the phones, gas was 59 cents a gallon and the methods of the diamond industry were safely behind the jewellery counter. Luckily, for diamond and precious stone purchasers there are a new sort of diamond shops available who not only inspire diamond education, they like working with consumers who know precisely what they need.

These diamond brokers have accessibility to the diamonds on the wholesale market and know the way to find diamonds that meet the shopper's need.

Better still the diamond brokers have lower overhead than a jewellery store so can find the outstanding diamonds at awfully inexpensive prices. The strongly competitive market-place always appears to produce sources for services and products that buyers demand.

The net diamond broker is well suited to serve today's well-knowledgeable and demanding diamond customer.

So there you have it; secret shopping does work and can benefit any business.