GIA to expand jewellery verification services

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) will extend its online jewellery verification services to Japan and India, among other countries, as part of a strategy to further boost consumer confidence.

According to Pritesh Patel, GIA’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, this will be similar to earlier collaborations with online retail marketplace eBay where GIA offers expert verification services for fine jewellery purchases. These services are available in the US and the United Kingdom.

“Every transaction that happens on the eBay platform on certain categories of jewellery has to be verified by GIA. This is critical to fostering consumer confidence,” Patel told JNA. “In the future, we will be expanding this service to other countries like Japan and India. We anticipate these types of collaboration to do well.”

Apart from eBay, GIA is also eyeing similar partnerships with other platforms that sell directly to consumers.

According to ShelfTrend, eBay’s data analytics tool, more than 170 million people buy from sellers on eBay each quarter. Meanwhile, latest data from research and market analyst AMZScout showed that jewellery and watches are among the top-selling categories on eBay.