Web Review: www.whiteflash.com

Debi Wexler joined Whiteflash as CEO in 2002, re-launching the business-to-business firm as an Internet retailer, selling loose diamonds directly to consumers. As part of this classic vertical integration step, Whiteflash also expanded its business from its core AGS “Hearts & Arrows”, branded as ‘A Cut Above’, into fancy cut diamonds and designer platinum and gold mountings.

 

Today, with an impressive database of more than 50,000 loose diamonds, whiteflash.com offers a powerful online platform for consumers, as well as cutters and wholesalers aiming to expand their business to the online arena.

Starting at the homepage, the user interface is very clean and simple while offering quite a few powerful features. The loose diamond section, for example, is definitely the highlight. The quick search smartly allows consumers to search for their stone based on the 4C’s, budget and additional parameters. For some reason, however, the default budget is $900,000, a bit above my own, I'm afraid.

The search results are straightforward and functionally designed. Each stone has an additional details view, which, other than allowing purchasing, links to a ring selection page and a matching diamonds search - a very interesting yet not commonly found feature.

Searching for a round diamond with a budget of $5,000, I got a reasonable set of results:  66 stones ranging in price from a H/VS2, Very Good cut for $4,555 to a G/VS2 with a $3,852 price tag, both 1.00 ct, EGL certified stones.

I marked both items and clicked "compare selected" but then I got the strangest error message: "You have to select at least two diamonds". Having already selected two diamonds, I almost gave up when I realized that I must select diamonds from the same results page.

Finally, I got a detailed comparison table and was able to add each of the diamonds to my shopping cart, a wish list, or "reserve diamond" after providing credit card or bank wire information.

Comparison systems are always very convincing. It's just that I had almost skipped this particular one due to a misleading feedback message. That would have been a pity.

IDEX Website Review is an objective evaluation, expressing clear and balanced opinions on retail diamond and jewelry websites. All articles published in this review are solely under IDEX’s editorial control and are not commercially influenced.

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