ZCOVA expands to offer lab-grown diamonds with a message that “if you want it, then get it”
[This is a sponsored article with ZCOVA.]
“I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it.”
That’s what Ariana Grande repeats throughout her single, 7 Rings. And she has a point. Women can get what they want, just because.
Gone are the days when women would wait on their husbands or boyfriends to pamper them with a spa day, flowers, or jewellery.
Nowadays, we have powerful and inspiring female icons to look up to, such as Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Michelle Yeoh, Deborah Henry, Yuna, and Datin Vivy Yusof.
And we’re proud to celebrate our own wins and have the financial means to get those flowers, that career, and even that diamond for ourselves.
Because if there’s one person who knows how to spoil you, it’s you.
Shining a light on women empowerment
Having a strong foothold in the Malaysian diamond market since 2015, and Asia’s gemstone market in 2021, ZCOVA has carved Ch’ya by ZCOVA (Ch’ya) in a new light.
Other than sparking change in the demi-fine jewellery space, Ch’ya aims to give women an avenue of practising self-love in the form of personalised, lasting jewellery with lab-grown diamonds. They are also championing the sentiment through the tagline, “Celebrating you”.
After all, ZCOVA is a proponent of women empowerment. Apart from co-founders Ziwei and Ziyin, the company is fully staffed by women.
Whether you’re looking to commemorate your post-graduate or doctorate success, a promotion, or starting a business, you shouldn’t have to shy away from being expressive about your achievements.
Every woman is unique and deserving of celebration, and Ch’ya wants you to honour those moments through personalised jewellery, be it a ring, necklace, bracelet, or earrings.
Celebrating Malaysian-made
Being a proud Malaysian brand, the name Ch’ya is pronounced exactly like the Malay word, cahaya, meaning “light”.
This way, when the brand makes it to the global stage, Ch’ya can be linked to its home country.
Dedicated to growing the local design scene, ZCOVA offers their in-house jewellery designers a platform to showcase their work.
When you order a customised fine jewellery piece, ZCOVA’s team of jewellery designers will carefully listen to your ideas, and create a masterpiece according to your request.
High-quality demi-fine jewellery
With a growing customer demand, Ch’ya lab-grown diamonds were introduced to spark change in the demi-fine jewellery space.
Made from a diamond seed, lab-grown diamonds are created by being put through a process that imitates the high temperatures and pressures a mined diamond naturally goes through beneath the Earth’s crust.
Hence, lab-grown diamonds end up having the same material, sparkle, appearance, and chemical properties as mined diamonds. To the naked eye, they can look exactly the same, as they have no physical difference in composition.
Ultimately, buying yourself a diamond doesn’t have to be for your engagement, wedding, or a gala event. Whether you’re buying diamond jewellery to spoil yourself or your best friend, Ch’ya can cater to your style, fit, and size.
Those interested in customising their own Ch’ya jewellery piece can speak to ZCOVA’s Curators, or visit the brand’s showrooms at Kota Damansara, Johor Bahru, or Penang.
Ch’ya’s mission is to push this message of women empowerment through jewellery, but the bigger message is that women are capable of accomplishing whatever they set out to do.
As Ziwei said, “I wish for my daughter to grow up in a world where women can achieve anything they set their minds to.”
Also Read: Hopping into a festive Peranakan house, what does a DJ rabbit have to say about CNY?
Featured Image Credit: Ch’ya by ZCOVA
Diamonds Were Just The Start, ZCOVA Now Looks To Dominate The Gemstone Market In Asia
[This is a sponsored article with ZCOVA.]
ZCOVA founders Low Ziwei and Low Ziyin started up with a laser focus on diamond industry disruption. They’ve innovated touches like 360° diamond viewing videos, personalised virtual consultations, virtual try-ons using augmented reality, and even brought in a dual diamond certification.
The end goal has always been to provide transparency and reliability, which allows their customers to make educated purchasing decisions and have a positive buying experience.
Along the way, they noticed that their customers regularly voiced dissatisfaction with another industry: gemstone purchasing. The problems? Lack of choices, designs, authentication, and education.
All these sounded very familiar to ZCOVA—in fact, these were some of the very issues they’ve worked to conquer in the diamond industry.
They’ve seen their share of success; over the years, the team told us that they’ve helped their customers save an estimated RM10 million while shopping for diamonds.
This was done by using ZCOVA’s technology that enables customers to skip unnecessary additional charges and browse diamonds online without being influenced by the opinions of the salespersons. They’re now applying the same principles and expertise to gemstones.
A Market Ripe For Disruption
The ZCOVA team describes the gemstone market as “fragmented”. Due to this, the technology needed to categorise gemstones was not available, even though there was a demand for it.
Thanks to the introduction of such technology, ZCOVA has been able to launch their very own Virtual Gemstone Inventory, where users can browse through a selection of 100,000 certified gemstones from around the world. 100,000 gemstones is a lot, so ZCOVA has split the categories into different types, shapes, colours, carats, clarity, origin and more.
The listings come with 10x magnified 360° videos and while taking a closer look at the gems, you can compare prices easily.
Each gemstone sold in ZCOVA will also be certified under ICL Certificates.
The More You Know: Unlike diamonds which have a universally recognised grading system through GIA, coloured gemstones currently lack that. Instead, the International Colored Gemstone Laboratory (ICL) established its own proprietary grading system.
However, for the gemstone market, ZCOVA recommends getting the gemstones certified at more than one laboratory so that customers can confidently know their gemstone’s origin and specification.
They provide an additional service to further certify gemstones under 2 separate laboratories, LOTUS and GRS, if customers would like to grade their gemstone further.
ZCOVA places a lot of emphasis on certifying the origin of gemstones, because each origin may have slight differences in its hue and saturation which will ultimately affect its value.
It’s important to them that customers are educated and aware of such differences, so that they can make the best decisions when choosing a gemstone.
After deciding on a gemstone, customers can get further access to more of ZCOVA’s services including unbiased gemologist consultations, in-house jewellery designers, 3D print technology, and experienced craftsmanship.
3D printing technology has proven to be a key differentiating factor for ZCOVA’s diamond sales in Malaysia and Singapore.
With that, the team were able to print customers’ desired designs precisely for them to try on and view in person. This way, customers can see how big the diamond looks on their fingers, get the right size, and actually see their designs before confirming.
“Customers have told us that this is much better than going to a store because normally you can only see the final ring after 2 months and it is already set in gold. At ZCOVA once a 3D printing is requested by a customer it will take 3-7 days for the design to be rendered and additional 2 days for printing,” said the team.
The Right Tech At The Right Time
“Consumers can now take advantage of the variety and transparency that has never been done in Asia,” the team announced in a press release about their virtual gemstone inventory launch.
These are bold words, but if their endeavours in the diamond industry thus far is the yardstick, ZCOVA does seem to have the clout to keep to their goal and bring the gemstone industry here to a whole new level.
With the ongoing pandemic limiting visits to physical stores, a large, easy-to-browse virtual collection of gemstones could be exactly what consumers are looking for. ZCOVA has already seen increased numbers on their diamond front. “Over the past 9 months even with the pandemic, our number of customers have more than doubled, ” they said.
It’s not hard to imagine how their gemstone sales could see a similar trajectory.
- See ZCOVA’s virtual gemstone collection here or contact ZCOVA for more information here.
- Read our past coverage on ZCOVA here.
Also Read: How MDEC Is Transforming Coworking Spaces In Malaysia To Accelerate Tech Startups
Featured Image Credit: ZCOVA
Exclusive: ZCOVA Reveals The Truth About Dual Certs, GemEx, And Diamond Retailing Secrets
People think diamond shopping means going from one jewellery store to another, but what most jewellers won’t tell you is that there is a smarter and better way to purchase that special gem.
To understand the differences better, I tapped into the expertise of Ziyin and Ziwei Low from ZCOVA, an online diamond platform, to learn the cold hard truths of buying diamonds from a retail store.
ZCOVA is in a unique position to comment; they were founded to break the misconceptions around diamonds. And now they’re determined to educate the public that contrary to popular belief, there is much more value in choosing and buying diamonds online.
I had a few of my own assumptions challenged during my conversation with them, and here are some insider revelations.
1. The “Seeing Is Believing” Principle Is Deeply Flawed
Often, people prefer to look at diamonds physically, as though they can tell the colour and clarity differences between diamonds.
A trip to any retail jewellery store will prove that unless the diamonds differ greatly in carat weight, colour and clarity. You wouldn’t be able to discern the diamond quality with your naked eye, especially the shine.
When viewed in-store, both of these diamonds look identical.
However, the difference is clear when the same 2 diamonds are viewed at 10x magnification 360° video. These ‘identical’ diamonds are in fact very different where the diamond on the right is less brilliant.
You may be surprised to know that this technology is already freely available on the ZCOVA website.
It’s convenient, there’s no cost for travelling required, and I particularly like how it’s easy to view in my own time and pace.
The same method is used by gemologists in the industry to pick and choose better diamonds. When making a luxury purchase, why shouldn’t customers also use this same standard then?
2. You’re Being Shortchanged Of One Important Internationally Recognised Cert
I’ve heard of the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) certificate, which grades diamonds for their 4cs—Cut, Colour, Clarity and Carat weight.
At ZCOVA, they offer another cert from GemEx that scientifically measures diamonds for light performance. In fact, international brands have already been using it for decades.
Now, why do we need a certificate to tell us how sparkly a diamond is when we can see it?
Lighting in jewellery retail stores is specially calibrated to reflect light on the displayed diamonds, easily manipulating how you see them. Even a dull diamond or crystal will look shiny in those settings as long as it has multiple facets.
“Don’t judge the brilliance of a diamond with naked eyes; get it certified,” says Ziwei.
In Singapore and Malaysia, ZCOVA is the first and sole online jeweller that can provide dual certificates for diamonds (GIA and GemEx).
If you’re looking for dual-certified diamonds, you can look for LUMOS by ZCOVA diamonds on their website.
And a point of pride: they do this without any additional cost on the diamonds for extra brilliance while other companies are charging 20% extra for the same thing.
How do they manage this? They have their own GemEx machine in their Malaysian office. To install the machine, GemEx had to send engineers over from the US to fit the machine and to make sure it runs smoothly.
This makes ZCOVA the reliable go-to for any discerning buyer who knows the value of diamonds with dual certification.
3. A Trained Salesperson Isn’t The Same As A GIA Graduate Gemologist
In the jewellery retail industry, a salesperson’s quest is usually to make you buy something of a higher price in the pursuit of a higher commission.
On the contrary, ZCOVA assigns a personal GIA graduate gemologist to provide an in-depth explanation based on your diamond preferences. After that, the gemologist will handpick the best diamonds for your price range.
There is no pressure to buy from them as they provide unbiased consultation. You can ask the gemologist anything, from picking a better diamond to recommending a ring setting.
Even if you are not purchasing the diamond from them, ZCOVA’s gemologist pays great attention to his customer’s needs and is always there to answer your questions.
“It’s different in retail where if you go in unprepared, you might end up with a diamond that you’re unsatisfied with or worse, more expensive than what you were willing to pay. We champion transparency,” said Ziwei.
4. Retailers Shouldn’t Charge More For Fancy Shape Diamonds
There is a common misconception that fancy shaped diamonds cost more because they are unique. Surprisingly, it’s false.
“In retail stores, these diamonds (such as oval, pear, heart and other shapes) are 20% or 30% more expensive than round diamonds. But, in the industry, round diamonds are the most expensive because they are the highest in demand and causes more wastage to achieve an excellent round diamond.”
– Ziyin (ZCOVA)
If having something unique is a priority to you, make use of ZCOVA’s in-house jewellery designers instead to create something personalised to you.
Mission: Altering The Perception Of Online Diamonds In SEA
Most European and American buyers understand that diamonds are a commodity because with the exact same product, it should not cost more. They have already benefited from buying diamonds online for a while now, but we are still lagging behind.
So why is ZCOVA revealing the truth about the industry to us?
Personally, I believe this could just be down to the negative stereotype that we hold for buying diamonds online. And that is exactly the mindset that ZCOVA wants to change.
To reassure their customers, they take measures like having extensive security and the diamonds are insured during transit too with Malca Amit, a global luxury goods logistics company.
Over the years, they have served happy customers from 4 different countries such as Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, and Malaysia with 4.9 star rating.
On top of that, ZCOVA provides free resizing and has a Price Match Guarantee policy. Basically, if you find a diamond with a comparable price from the retail stores, ZCOVA will not only honour the price, but will offer you a lower price.
Here are the 6 assurances that you’ll get from ZCOVA:
- Free global insured shipping for every order.
- ZCOVA 3-Point Check to track your purchased diamond.
- 100% refund policy if a diamond’s GIA report number doesn’t match.
- Lifetime warranty on manufacturing defects.
- Free engraving and resizing services.
- Secure payment options.
The progress of the digital age has already allowed us to purchase higher value items conveniently and safely, so why should diamonds be any different?
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