Web Review: www.Abazias.com

By Gil Galanti

With over 65,000 diamonds available for direct purchasing from its online inventory, Abazias.com is one of the leading diamond dealers in North America, shipping diamonds all over the U.S. and many other countries around the world.

In October 2003, Abazias Inc., the company who runs this website became the world’s only publicly traded company to specialize in direct to the public online distribution of loose diamonds at wholesale prices. Thus, the website has been significantly upgraded, and now offers cleaner design and more intuitive navigation system, better functionality and expanded inventory. Website security has also been improved and expanded database management capabilities now allow Abazias to keep more efficient track of their customers’ needs.

Although earning a very good grade in all of the above parameters, I find one prominent element within the site to be annoyingly surprising: at the time this review was edited, a huge “Our top sellers - take a look” button led to an empty page. I am sure there is a good “it’s in development” explanation for this, but some visitors might just have a very different interpretation. I would fix that or remove the button, as soon as possible.

“We feel being public puts us at a distinct advantage to our main competitors like the privately held Blue Nile and Diamond.com” says Abazias president and CEO Oscar Rodriguez, “while at the same time exposing investors to a different market niche versus what was currently available in the public markets”.

Well, I don’t know much about investments, so I would just have to take Rodriguez’s word for it. But I can tell you this: to me, Abazias.com is one of the most interesting diamond websites on the Internet. Right now, if my wife were about to spend $5000 on a 1.3 Carat heart shaped diamond, Abazias.com would have been my first recommendation. But please, don’t tell her that. %

IDEX Website Review is an objective evaluation, expressing clear balanced opinions on retail diamond and jewelry websites. All critics and conclusions published in this review are solely under IDEX's editorial control and may not be commercially influenced.  If you'd like to submit a site for inclusion in our review list, please send an email to webreview@idexonline.com with your full name, job description, company name and internet domain name of your proposed website.