Jewelry store 2.0?

Rob Bates

Experiential diamond retailer opening on Fifth Avenue.

It will greet visitors with quotes from Plato and a history of famous diamonds. It boasts one of the few indoor-outdoor spaces on Fifth Avenue. And it vows to charge customers the same price for diamonds online sites do.

It’s Facet of Love, a new “experiential” jewelry store concept due to open this fall at 61st Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, spearheaded by diamantaire Moshe Lax.

Lax, the CEO of Dynamic Diamonds and one-time partner to Ivanka Trump in her jewelry line, hopes his concept will provide the answer to the general woes plaguing the industry.

The industry’s problems are two-pronged, Lax feels: People see that online prices for diamonds are cheaper, but don’t enjoy the e-tail buying experience.

People don’t want to buy diamonds from an Excel spreadsheet,” he says. “There is no romance, there is no experience to it. So people just push it off.

As befits a store close to Apple’s New York City flagship, Lax’s 10,000-square-foot space will be all about the experience. It will feature quotes about different types of love. A gallery in the middle will spotlight jewelry designers. A diamond bar, similar to the Apple Genius Bar, will be staffed by gemologists eager to teach consumers about diamonds. There will also be an outdoor garden, perhaps the only one in a Fifth Avenue store.

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Source JCK Online