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Overall Score:3 | | ||||
Price:2.5 | | Selection:2.5 | | Customer Service: 4 | |
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Everywhere you turn, you hear about Amazon disrupting retail markets. Electronics, housewares, accessories and shoes. Pretty much anything you buy, Amazon has impacted that business. So what about the engagement ring and bridal market? Have they had an impact? Are they a viable option for you, the consumer? Taking a quick look you can find some nice looking stud earrings or a simple solitaire engagement ring for seemingly fantastic prices. Are these great deals or is it poor value for the customer?
To answer that question we’ll take a look at what Amazon has to offer and see how it stacks up against the competition. We’ll compare products and prices, look at their site and consider how valuable service for this particular purchase.
Should you buy an engagement ring From Amazon?
Amazon is definitely not the place to go for your engagement ring. It is incredibly difficult to find the perfect ring on their site, the quality is wildly unpredictable and you get far better value at online retailers that specialize in engagement ring products like Blue Nile and James Allen. For example, this diamond and setting from Blue Nile was far superior in quality to the similar ring we purchased from Amazon, and it was still cheaper.
When it comes to other diamond jewelry like stud earrings or tennis bracelets, Amazon is an interesting option. Amazon really shines when it comes to non-diamond jewelry like like cufflinks. But when it comes to engagement rings, I’d look elsewhere.
Why you should trust us
To help you with the diamond buying process we lean on our expertise and experience. The author of this article, our CEO, Mike Fried has over 20 years of experience in the diamond industry. Mike started from the bottom, sorting and evaluating hundreds of thousands of diamonds to learn every facet (pun intended) of diamond quality and value. Mike followed that up by spending years buying and selling diamonds on the wholesale market as well as selling tens of millions of dollars worth of diamonds to diamond retailers.
Why you should NOT buy an engagement ring on Amazon
Your engagement ring is a special purchase—one that will last a lifetime. Ensuring you buy a high-quality ring from a trustworthy vendor is important when it comes to such a big purchase.
Here are several reasons why you shouldn’t buy your engagement ring on Amazon.
Deal Alert: Get 25% off sitewide at James Allen
Products have misleading titles and descriptions
When you search for engagement rings on Amazon, you’ll see thousands of results, but the products aren’t always as described. For example, some engagement ring listings might say that they’re diamonds, when in fact they’re synethic diamonds, cubic zirconia, or moissainte. When I searched “diamond engagement ring” on Amazon, the rings below appeared, even though some of them were moissainte (ie. not real diamonds).
Part of this is likely due to the nature of Amazon’s marketplace, which allows sellers to offer competing products. Amazon’s search engine, like Google, uses search keywords to find appropriate products, and sellers can freely insert terms such as “diamond” or “diamond-like” into their titles in order to appear in more people’s searches.
The misleading descriptions not only make it hard to find an actual diamond ring, but can also make it difficult to trust what you’re purchasing.
The diamonds don’t have specific grades
Many of the listings don’t even provide the exact carat weight or color and clarity grades of the diamond. They might only give a range for the diamond color scale and diamond clarity scale, such as in the example below.
In other words, you won’t really know what you’re getting or paying for. You won’t know if your diamond will be brilliant, dull, eye-clean, or have a large inclusion in it. This is a major problem, as the standardized grading system of an entity like the GIA is a huge part of what adds trust to the process of buying a diamond online.
Amazon is assumed to be cheap, but it’s not for rings
While Amazon is a marketplace with great prices on items ranging from home goods to toys and clothing, that isn’t the case for diamond rings. In general, the Amazon rings you’ll see for a lower price also mean lower quality. It was difficult to find engagement rings on Amazon to compare with rings from James Allen or Blue Nile, because the quality of the diamonds was so low. They might have a poor diamond cut quality or be included.
Stock photos are used, not actual photos
When you shop for diamonds, it’s extremely important to review each diamond up close before purchase. You want to see how brilliant the stone is, what blemishes it has, and what the actual color looks like. On Amazon, however, stock images are used. You won’t be able to see the actual diamond you’re buying. Even if the seller claims the diamond is a VS2 Clarity grade, you won’t know for certain if it’s eye-clean, because you’re looking at a stock image.
You can’t be sure about the source of the diamond
There are multiple jewelers on Amazon, so it’s hard to know the source of the diamond (i.e. if a diamond is conflict-free). Unlike online vendors like Blue Nile and James Allen, Amazon doesn’t sell the diamonds directly themselves. Anyone can be a vendor on Amazon and sell “diamonds.”
Reviews aren’t always real
Whether it’s for cosmetics or diamond rings, the reviews on Amazon aren’t always real. Some companies pay people to write fake positive reviews. That’s one reason it’s hard to evaluate Amazon diamond rings. You don’t know if the diamond is “the most beautiful they’ve ever seen” or completely dull.
Take a look at the review below. It seems laughably fake. Who buys an engagement ring for the love of their life and posts a review “I will buy it again”? It is far more likely that this is a cut and paste review.
This is a major problem on Amazon — one that Forbes has reported on before. Although Amazon makes an effort to police its marketplace for fake and misleading reviews, some vendors leave reviews for their own products (or outright pay for fake reviews) in order to build false trust with potential customers. This is a serious problem when you’re shopping for a product as significant and costly as a diamond ring.
Shipping and returns can be tricky
Unlike reputable diamond vendors like James Allen and Blue Nile who offer free returns, it’s uncertain what you’re buying into on Amazon. Return policies depend on the individual seller and the type of product. Some vendors might not allow you to return the ring if it’s not what you want. The expected shipping time and security of your package also depends on the seller.
Can’t customize as easily / Limited choices
Most rings on Amazon are cookie cutter options. You don’t have the availability to custom design a ring. You might have just one or a few settings to choose from. Even if the seller allows you to customize, it could take a month or longer to receive your product.
Overall, you’re better off going with a trustworthy online vendor for your engagement ring, like James Allen or Blue Nile. They specialize in engagement rings, have excellent shipping and return policies, and you’ll get the best price in the market. Even if you have a smaller budget for your engagement ring, you can find a stunning choice with Blue Nile or James Allen. We even offer you help for your search.
The Amazon Model Meets the Diamond Retail Industry
Most consumers looking for a diamond are buying an engagement ring. The first issue we face is the Amazon business model trying to work for diamond rings. Amazon’s business model works really well when you are selling a product that is easily duplicated. I just looked at my previous orders on Amazon and they all fall in that category: Lightbulbs, a sous vide cooker, a cell phone case and exercise gloves. Thousands of people can order the same product and the same supplier just pulls them out of their warehouse to ship.
This is not how people buy diamond rings. This is one of the most personal purchases you will ever make and you want it to be perfect. It is also one of the largest purchases most people have made at that point in their life. You search for the perfect setting, then pair it with the perfect diamond. Both of these searches, while connected, are separate. This raises two problems with Amazon’s model. Limited ability to find the right ring and inability to select the right quality diamond.
When buying a diamond ring at a proper jeweler, whether it is an online jeweler like Blue Nile or James Allen or a physical retailer in your hometown, you get to mix and match. We’ll use online retailers as they are the “competition” Amazon is facing. You can read about engagement rings from James Allen or our review of Blue Nile rings.
Step 1: Finding the setting you want.
Let’s say you want a twisted pave style engagement ring with a one carat center diamond. On Amazon, I searched for “Twist Engagement Rings” and used their filter for 1.00ct-1.49ct. There were roughly 150 results. That sounds like a lot, right? Well, not really.
First off, you need to remove all the results that don’t have a center diamond. Of those 150 rings, 55 of them did not have a single center stone. Instead, they put a cluster of tiny diamonds in the middle.
Then you have duplicates of the same style ring over and over. For example, there are 24 rings offered by the company “Allurez” that popped up in the results. In reality, they only have 2 styles there, just with different metal options. So while they have 150 results listed, there are barely any rings listed that fit the bill of “Twist engagement rings”.
Now let’s take a look at Blue Nile. The same search “only” nets 44 results. But those results paint a far better picture. Of those 44, 37 of the rings listed were unique engagement ring options. For most of these settings, you can choose from multiple metal options. Many of the rings are able to be set with different diamond shapes as well.
Take this Petite Twist Diamond Engagement Ring from Blue Nile for example. If you open it up, you can see that there are two different metal options and the diamond can be set with eight different diamond shapes. You can truly tailor the ring to your personal preferences.
As you can see, the search results were a little misleading. Amazon’s “150” results turned out to be closer to 15 to 20 different options while Blue Nile’s “44” results gave you hundreds of different permutations. Not only do you have more options, but it was far easier to search for a specific style.
Step 2: Getting the right diamond.
Now we get to the second half of the equation. Finding the right diamond to put in that perfect setting you’ve found. This is where Amazon desperately needs to pick up its game. Let’s say you were not deterred by the poor selection, or inability to properly filter your results and settled on one particular setting. Let’s use the pave twist setting from Allurez that we mentioned above. Take a look at the ring itself. It looks fantastic.
There is just one problem. That is not the exact ring you are getting. See, they offer that ring style, but they don’t tell you exactly which diamond you are getting. They tell you that they will add a diamond in the “G-H” “Si1-Si2” range. There are loads of problems with offering something like that.
First off, they don’t say anything about about cut quality, which is very important (you can read more here). They don’t mention fluorescence (which can impact the price of the diamond) and they don’t even mention which certificate the diamond comes with (not all certificates are equal as we explain here).
Second off, that is a range of qualities with a pretty wide array of price points. If you couple that vagueness with the issues I just mentioned, there is no way to figure out if that ring is a good deal.
Let’s use a couple of diamonds as examples. First I found a similar twist pave setting on James Allen. If you look at it, you will see that it is better quality (gold vs palladium, higher carat weight etc). Now let’s look at a couple of diamonds. This first diamond from James Allen is an H SI2, so it falls in the range that Allurez was offering through Amazon. However, the diamond has ugly inclusions and is certified by IGI (we recommend GIA certificates only). This diamond is $3,190.
Now let’s take a look at this F SI1 diamond from James Allen that costs $5,190. This diamond is far superior to the other James Allen diamond (better cut, color, clarity and certificate). Also, take a look at this search on James Allen. It allows you to filter and sort your information any way you need. They, like Blue Nile, also offer high quality diamond images so you can see the diamond before purchasing.
So if you were buying on Amazon, how exactly are you supposed to find the right diamond. You can’t search for your particular quality preferences and you can’t be sure exactly what quality you are getting. Back to that Allurez ring, is it a lower quality diamond and a terrible deal? Or is it a better quality diamond that may be worthwhile? There is no way to know, so we decided to secret shop them. And that is exactly what we did.
Secret Shopping for an Engagement Ring on Amazon
The only way to describe the engagement ring that I purchased from Amazon is a train wreck. I tried to be as fair as possible when picking the ring to order, but what I received was an enormous disappointment. The ring I went with was supposed to be a 1ct GH color, SI1/2 clarity diamond in a twisted pave ring (you can see the product here). They were charging $5,066 for the ring.
What I received was far below the qualities the supplier promised. While the color wasn’t bad, the clarity was at least 4 grades lower than the range they claimed (in my opinion, it was an I3 at best). You can see in the image (of the actual ring we received) that the diamond is completely covered with grey, cloud-like imperfections. I showed the ring to a colleague of mine in the diamond industry and we both agreed that no diamond expert would buy this diamond for $1,000.
Fortunately, the supplier did accept the return right away, as I was not looking forward to losing $4,000 while conducting research for this article.
Is Amazon cheaper than James Allen or Blue Nile?
Had the diamond from Amazon been up to quality they claimed, the rings would have been fair deals. Take a look at this diamond from James Allen and this diamond from Blue Nile. Both of these diamonds are GIA certified. Both companies offer similar setting styles that are superior (white gold instead of palladium). Here is petite pave ring from James Allen and a twist diamond engagement ring from Blue Nile.
Both James Allen and Blue Nile, came in about 5% cheaper than the offer at Amazon. Normally that isn’t a huge difference, but given the vastly inferior quality of the diamond from Amazon, it became a no-brainer. They shouldn’t even have been in the same ballpark. I wasn’t able to compare the quality of the actual Amazon ring I received to offers from James Allen or Blue Nile, because neither of those companies offer something of such poor quality.
Just like any product, buying a low-quality item at a cheaper price doesn’t mean you’re getting a better deal. In fact, it means you’re paying more for a less beautiful diamond. As we describe in our diamond education articles, Cut is the quality that most greatly impacts a diamond’s beauty. The amount of light that reflects off of the diamond’s table back to your eye is due mostly to the diamond’s cut. For this reason, we only recommend looking at Excellent and Ideal cut diamonds. Most of the diamonds on Amazon have “Very Good” or “Good” cut quality. This means they will lack brilliance and fire. Rather than being an eye-catching stone, they’ll be dull and lifeless.
If you’re looking for cheap engagement rings with long-lasting beauty, we suggest lowering your carat weight and focusing on cut quality instead. Both Blue Nile and James Allen offer stunning options at lower prices than almost every other jewelry store. We can even help you search their inventories to find the best diamond for your budget.
Through our years of experience, we’ve vetted hundreds of diamond dealers, and Blue Nile and James Allen give the best value for high-quality diamonds.
Why Amazon’s Customer Service Doesn’t Cut It for Engagement Rings
Traditionally Amazon is know for good customer service. They offer features like money back guarantees and refunds on a large majority of their products. But that isn’t always the case when buying a niche item. With engagement rings, sometimes you’re not able to make a return or get your money back. It all depends on the particular vendor that’s selling you the ring.
But that’s not all: you absolutely need more service than when you buy ziplock bags or a new hammer. An engagement ring is a personalized and often expensive purchase. Having an experienced representative help you in the process is often essential.
For example, customer service should be able to answer specific questions about the jewelry and handle personal requests (i.e. resizing, different center stone quality). You may wonder about where the diamond was mined or if you can add pave detailing on the band.
When you work with a professional dealer like James Allen or Blue Nile, engagement rings are their specialty. They take customer service seriously and offer a seamless experience. They train their staff to be knowledgeable on diamonds, engagement rings, and their specific products. You’ll get a high-end experience, since this is a high-end product. Both websites offer 24/7 live chat, along with a phone and email option. You can reach someone in a matter of minutes who will take the time to answer your questions, walk you through information, or help you customize a ring.
Unlike professional jewelers, Amazon doesn’t provide any help when it comes to engagement rings. Instead, you have to rely on the actual vendor of the product which can be inconsistent at best. Sometimes it’s difficult or impossible to reach someone from the company through Amazon, and their answer might not prove helpful.
Without a high level of service and experienced staff, buying an engagement ring on Amazon becomes more of a frustrating gamble than an well-informed, luxurious experience.
Stud Earrings
Normally we try to order the same quality for all companies when comparing stud earrings. Unfortunately, Amazon did not have the specific quality that we ordered for other companies. Instead we went with these ½ ctw stud earrings that were lower quality.
I was genuinely impressed with the look and quality of the diamonds. Yes they were lower quality (you can’t see most of the inclusions when its not magnified) than we normally recommend, but they were exactly the quality they claimed to be. While I wouldn’t recommend this quality to our readers, if you really want to maximize the size for your budget, these are an interesting alternative.
The packaging was a little sub-par compared to Blue Nile and James Allen, but it was acceptable. And the return was super easy.
You can read more about how they stacked up against the competition in our Diamond Stud Article.
Tennis Bracelets
We did not have a chance to secret shop Amazon’s tennis bracelets but based on my research, they have some pretty good offerings, similar to their stud earrings. This 2ctw prong set tennis bracelet for example looks fantastic to me. It is comparable to this offering from Blue Nile.
You can read more about it in our Tennis Bracelet Guide.
Cufflinks
This is the type of jewelry that Amazon will excel at. There is not as much of an issue when it comes to quality (like you have with diamonds) and their sheer size allows them to offer loads of options from this classic set to something a little more funky like these.
You can read more in our Cufflinks Buying Guide.
Final Thoughts on Buying an Engagement Ring on Amazon
Amazon might be a great place to buy vitamins or electronics, but not engagement rings. The marketplace lacks quality diamonds, accurate listings, trustworthy sellers, and more. The truth is, you won’t wind up with a good deal or a beautiful diamond. You’re far better off leaving engagement rings to reliable online diamond vendors.
We highly recommend James Allen and Blue Nile. You can choose a beautiful diamond engagement ring at a fraction of the price of bricks and mortar stores.
For personalized help in your search, contact our experts.
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. James Allen will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free International Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisals
- One free resizing within 60 days of purchase
- Free ring inscriptions
- Best-in-class high quality imagery of all diamonds in stock
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Best-in-class packaging
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. Blue Nile will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisal
- One free resizing within the first year of purchase
- High quality images of about half of their diamonds
- 24/7 Customer Service
- 100% credit towards future upgrades (must be at least double in value)
- Best in class fulfillment
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