Suggestions/advices on how to start and compete on a diamond ring jewelry business?

Oh wow.

I like this question, it's a bit out of the ordinary for IH but really interesting. Here's my $0.02...

The first thing you have to understand is why are people buying diamond rings?

I'm going to let you in on a (not so) secret - the value isn't in the diamond (or even in the ring, really) - the value is in what the ring represents...

Rightly or wrongly, a wedding ring is a symbol of the man (traditionally at least) investing in the relationship. It symbolises his commitment (financially, romantically, and in terms of time/thought invested) to his partner.

So 'just' a perfect, affordable ecommerce shop isn't really an advantage - your customer is looking for a brand and product which represents that commitment I talked about above. That makes easy and affordable two terms to avoid for starters.

Now bigger brands have had a lot of time and money to invest into really building up this brand identity and experience for the customer. And they'll do this for the 'bigger' niches where they can shift a lot of stock (or be really high end with a great margin).

So I wouldn't even think about competing there.

But the great thing about the wedding business is that it's really, really personal. And there are lots of people out there looking for something different which isn't currently served by the popular brands.

I don't know which niches are underserved (could be environmentally friendly couples, lesbians, arranged marriages, couples going through a low-key third marriage, whatever) but if you invest into one of those underserved niches, really understand your customers and build up some great content and a great story around that niche, I'm pretty sure you can build up a great business pretty quickly.

Good luck!

This is an uphill battle unless you're a skilled Jeweler that can customize the rings or have a network of folks that can do it for you. Few just go buy stock engagement rings unless they are vintage, and rings like this typically bought in person after lengthy consultation, not online.

Have you thought about looking at free forms of advertising?

Is your service geographically limited? In other words, do you ship anywhere in the world or are you limited to an area of some sort? Not relevant to what follows - I'm just curious.

As your marketing budget is limited, start thinking about the businesses associated with jewellery. Many of them are small businesses. Many of them have websites. Many of them might let you have a page or an advertisement on them, especially if create affiliate links for them. Many of them might welcome an article from you about the importance of choosing rings, how to do it, what the different things to look out for are or whatever else is important to a potential client. That way, you put yourself in front of their web traffic.

If your ring costs you $100 and you sell it for $150, you can be generous and give the referrer, say, $20 to give them an incentive to keep promoting you.

You can do photo shoots, article writing, podcast intrviews ... whatever these associated businesses have on their websites.

Naturally, you cross-link back to them on your website so you become a curated directory of businesses related to jewellery for whatever reasons you have identified.

Off-hand, I can think of florists, wedding arrangers, photographers, banquet halls, chauffeur companies, romantic break hotels, local travel agents (the proposal holiday).

It wouldn't necessarily bring you any great fortunes immediately but it would put your name out there and provide valuable back-links to your website.

Another idea is to start a YouTube channel for your rings. You can cover all sorts of areas: your actual products; history; culture; manufacture; watching a goldsmith a work etc., etc. As far as I know, you can do that sort of thing for free and make better videos in the future as your fortunes improve.