Often referred to as the “King of Gems”, ruby is one of the most popular colored gemstones today. It’s certainly the most popular red gem among consumers. Spring and summer months bring an increased opportunities to sell this beautiful stone: ruby is a favorite alternative gem for the center stone in engagement rings; and July babies are lucky to be able to claim ruby as their birthstone.
One of the most successful approaches is to combine romance and lore with product knowledge and gemological information. The technique will almost always lead to increased sales of rubies.
Take these tips, from David Peters, of Jewelers of America, to help raise your customer’s awareness and desire for rubies:
- Fine quality ruby in sizes over a carat rival almost all other gemstones, including diamonds, in their rarity and value.
- When describing a ruby to your customers, focus on color. Whether the gem you are showing is pure red, purplish red or orange red, the vibrant color is what catches your customer’s attention.
- Being a part of the same mineral family as sapphire, if a gem is too light in tone or too purple or orange in hue, it should be called a fancy sapphire and not a ruby.
- The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) can provide valuable product knowledge about rubies. Their Distance Learning course "Colored Stone Essentials" is one of the best tools available for increasing your knowledge of rubies and other colored gems.
- Employees of Jewelers of America member stores receive a 10% discount on all GIA Distance Learning and Laboratory classes. To find out more about this great member benefit, click here.
Take The Tip:
To learn more about the evaluating the color of a ruby, click here to read an expert article from GIA.
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