Dhanteras shopping list now includes lab-grown diamonds, digital gold

Lab-grown diamonds have become more popular in this year's festive season as prices plunged to less than half year-on-year

Lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) sales more than doubled during the Dhanteras-Diwali period last week, The Economic Times (ET) reported. Rings made using LGDs were the most popular category and attracted most buyers, industry insiders told the newspaper. Besides LGDs, digital gold also attracted buyers, the sales of which went up by 60 per cent year-on-year, the report said.

Founder of Limelight Diamonds, the largest LGD brand in the country, Sheth Madhavan, told ET, "Our sales saw a huge increase this Diwali and revenue surged 2.2X (120 per cent) increase compared to the year-ago period." More and more people are buying LGD jewellery studded with bigger solitaires, namely two-carat plus, Madhvan added.

What are lab-grown diamonds?

As the name suggests, lab-grown diamonds are made artificially and solve for the rarity of natural diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds emerged as a new category and provided an alternative to the costlier natural diamonds. LGDs have become more popular in this year's festive season as prices plunged to less than half year-on-year. The prices of LGD rings with 1-carat solitaire came down from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 2 lakh last year. A 1-carat natural diamond ring, on the other hand, costs five times more at Rs 5 lakh, the ET report said.

Elaborating on the jump in sales, Sheth Madhvan said, "We have seen a significant ramp-up in sales of pure solitaire-based jewellery even in tier-2 cities through our point of sales. This category will flourish and we plan to open 10 additional stores in the coming months."

Digital gold sales

The sale of digital gold also went up during the Dhanteras-Diwali period. SafeGold, a digital gold platform that allows customers to lease gold to generate income, said that its business grew 50-60 per cent year-on-year.

Head of consumer business at SafeGold. Rhea Chaterji told ET, "This year, the highest investment in our digital platform was Rs 3 crore, which means the person who invested had accumulated 4.7 kg of gold with us. Last year, the highest figure was 1.5 kg gold.