How Fiona Diamonds packages diamonds & moizannites with disruptive tech

In his session, Parag Agrawal, Co-Founder, and CEO of Fiona Diamonds charted the journey towards building a one-stop destination for moizannites, natural and lab-grown diamonds by going digital completely

At a time when the entire fine jewellery industry was averse to the idea of lab-grown diamonds, brave entrant Fiona Diamonds predicted a harmonious coexistence of three segments of gemstones appreciated by a mature customer base. That was in 2018, and at the Retail Jeweller India Forum 2024, Parag Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of Fiona Diamonds gave a glimpse of the brand’s journey and success in his session named ‘Transforming jewellery retail with digital innovation and Aldriven customer experience at Fiona Diamonds with its affiliates, Shoppers Stop, Nykaa and Pernia’s Pop-up Shop.’

The brand’s differentiator was building a one-stop destination for all kinds of jewellery. “Fiona faced a lot of resistance on how one can sell natural and lab-grown diamonds and moissanite jewellery under one roof. But we have one customer who bought all three for different occasions,” said Agrawal.

During the COVID period, the brand realized that getting adequate footfalls was a tougher challenge than opening stores. “We went digital by stopping all our print ads and gauging complete conversions through CRM, integrating ERP to see how many customers are inquiring for what product,” he said. During COVID, engagement rings became a viable market for Fiona Diamonds, which witnessed that people were buying more jewellery for the same budget meant for natural diamond jewellery.

The tech-savvy brand relies heavily on ChatGPT, and has found the perfect entry to the gifting segment via affiliations with Shoppers Stop, which is expanding to 10 stores. Across its showrooms in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, Fiona Diamonds currently has about 12,000 customers, whose digital journey is completely mapped online. The brand has a stock turn ratio of 5x, with a 14x return on ad spending made possible through generative AI.

“Google ads and Google display marketing have helped us build our customer funnel. On Instagram, the brand has grown from 5,000 followers to 70,000+ followers during COVID, with ticket sizes ranging from Rs 5-10 lakh,” he maintained.

hurdles of lack of reference in a traditional fine jewellery industry by getting new customers instead of relying on loyalty references. “Today, CXO-level professionals love buying grown diamonds and do not shy away from sharing them with friends and family,” said Agrawal.