b'THE STATE OF RETAIL DIAMONDSJEWELRYCOLORED DESIGN STONESEBAYPROSFounded in 1995, eBay was one of the first online auction sites on the scene, a rare winner to emerge from the decades dot-com bubble.Its well-established presence is a bonus, and it has a healthy customer base to show for it.EBay had a total of 147 million active buyers as of De-cember 2021, according to its full-year financial results.Similar to Amazon, eBay has a low barrier to entry, which means a greater variety of products but heightened competition. To help sellers compete, eBay also gives the option to promote listings.The site has a unique benefit for those selling luxury watches.Looking to make it more secure to buy and sell luxury watches on its platform, the company added escrow to itsThe eBay office in San Jose, California. The online auction site offers special protections for those buying and payment options for high-end watches in May 2021. Theselling luxury watches.option is available to those buying or selling watches for more than $10,000. Once the buyer receives the watch in the When a buyer chooses the escrow option, they are directed to thecondition described in the listing and all Escrow.com website, a third-party partner, to create an account. Bothother terms of the sale are met, the funds the buyer and seller need to have one. are released to the seller.The buyer adds funds to an account via wire transfer or ACHThe buyer then has up to seven days electronic check. to inspect the watch before accepting it. Once it is accepted or the seven days pass, the item can no lon-ger be returned. People are looking for JEWELERS TAKE To protect sellers against athose discontinued pieces and fraudulent return, funds aretheyre looking for a deal.Eisen also has an eBay store. held by Escrow.com for five She was drawn to the platform because of its wide variety of offerings.days to allow sellers to inspect Trisha Josephs,It is not a marketplace strictly focused on jewelry.returned merchandise and make Eisen uses eBay to sell estate and vintage jewelry, but also functionalsure it matches the originalJosephs Jewelersjewelry, like medical ID bracelets. item sold.The sign-up and listing process is easy, she says, but the other movingAnother positive for watch parts are where it gets complicated. sellers is that eBay has its own verification process in place for Loading your picture, putting your description, putting your price,$2,000-plus watches, marking them with an Authenticity Guarantee thats getting easier than it was before so that more people can do it. Itsbadge after being inspected by third-party company Stoll & Co.the back-end stuff like fraud [protection] and credit cards and all thatThough it sells nearly anything and everything, eBay has been [thats difficult], says Eisen. expanding more in the watch and jewelry world recently, exhibiting at Trisha Josephs of Josephs Jewelers set up an eBay storefront as well,the Las Vegas Antique Jewelry & Watch Show for the first time in 2021.but found its best used seasonally, from around September to January. EBay said it sold more than 196,000 luxury watches in 2020, Rather than list jewelry, the retailer uses the platform to move seasonalincluding highly coveted brands like Rolex and Patek Philippe. Pre-giftware, like Christmas ornaments and other holiday-related items. owned luxury watches accounted for 62 percent of its inventory and For eBay, it seemed like thats the one that gets the most action for77 percent of luxury watch sales that year.things like that, says Josephs. People are looking for those discontinuedFor shoppers on the hunt for specific watch models, especially as pieces and theyre looking for a deal. certain brands face a supply shortage, eBay and other auction sites may be where theyre turning to find that special piece and a great place for jewelers to be to meet that need.16 STATE OF THE MAJORS 2022'