|
Online Diamond Retailers on High Gears
SHENZHEN, Oct 31, 2008 (SinoCast China IT Watch via COMTEX) --
Emerging Chinese online diamond retailers such as Zbird.com and 9diamond.com are nibbling at the lead of traditional brick-and-mortar stores. They are simply replicating the success of U.S.-based Bluenile.com.
Zbird.com received USD 5 million from Capital Today last year in its first round of financing. Lately it got additional CNY 100 million from Ceyuan Ventures and Capital Today.
Sales of Zbird.com topped CNY 100 million in 2007, putting a fire into the cautious and ailing venture capital market.
Spokesperson for the branding and marketing department of Zbird.com says that the new proceeds will be used for establishment of offline experience stores across the nation. Now the company is expanding at the rate of setting up two stores each month.
The number of its sales outlets is expected to reach 12 by the end of this year and to cover all major cities in the coming two years.
Traditional diamond distributors are having higher operation costs with slower cash turnover. They have been losing ground to online start-up companies.
By complementing the advantages of offline experience stores, online retailers are more brisk and responsive to the specific needs of Chinese shoppers. Above all, their costs are much lower.
The NASDAQ-listed Bluenile.com has a yearly sale of USD 450 million, accounting for 10% of America's online jewelry market and 0.5% to 1% of the traditional diamond market.
Signaling the growing interests of global venture capital firms towards the most profitable online diamond market in China, KPCB, Qiming Venture Partners, RAPAPORT, and Zero IPO invested USD 10 million in 9diamond.com early this year.
Xu Xin, president of Capital Today, says in an interview that she decided to bed on Zbird.com merely after she met Xu Xiao and Xu Xei, the two founders of the Chinese website, for once. The president was very confident of their business model that is mimicking that of Bluenile.com.
As a jeweler appraisal major, Xu Lei, older brother of Xu Xiao, started to try to sell diamond online in July 2002 at eBayeachnet.com, a joint venture founded by eBay and Eachnet, becoming the first online store to sell diamond in China.
In 2004, the predecessor of Zbird.com won the best seller award granted by eBayeachnet.com. In October that year, Xu Xiao and Xue Lei set up an offline experience center with a total commercial space of 20 square meters.
From dycj.ynet.com, Page 1, Wednesday, October 29, 2008
info@SinoCast.com
[ Back To Homepage ]
|
