Hybrid Jewelers

Hybrid jewelers are more common than you think. These are jewelers that operate across several platforms at the same time. Brick and Mortar. Internet. TV shopping. They’re somewhat different skill sets but, increasingly, a jeweler is expected to be good at all of them. A few of the Internet dealers, like Blue Nile and James Allen, started out as virtual diamond sellers and have grown to become full blown jewelers. They even have showrooms in the mall.

On the other end, Whiteflash.com started out as a retailer in Texas. It was a natural product extension to move onto the internet. JTV is, just as it sounds, a big player on the television, but if you don’t want to watch the show, every single item is on their website. They’re a hybrid jeweler in every sense of the term. You don’t even have to wait for things to go on ‘sale’.  Just log on to see what you want and buy-it-now. No TV required.

This has changed everything.

Now nearly every jeweler operates on multiple platforms but they can look very different. Often the website of a hybrid jeweler will show a substantially different inventory than what you see in the store. This is because although they have the same name and the same owners, the back end can be completely different. The website pictures and such are supplied by their web vendor while the items in the store can come from any of a wide number of sources. The result can be a showroom with dozens of different suppliers, not even counting estate type pieces, paired with a website with only one.