A Visit to Scotland's Trade Fair

Scotland's Trade Fair in Spring is/was running again from 22-24 January 2017 and we paid this exhibition an other visit to source new jewellery that is both beautiful and carries the "Made in Scotland" label. It was certainly a busy and successful visit to the show.

So what can you expect? To start with, all of our products in the Andrew McCallum Desginer section are back in stock. We met up with the designer himself and collected the items that we ordered for re-stocking. This also gave us the opportunity to take a closer look at the other items in his range and we are pleased to say that you will find more of his designs on our site in the next few weeks.

Next in the line up is a jewellery designer and maker from the Orkney islands: Celina Rupp. Her designs caught our attention as they beautifully portray the wilderness of Scottish nature in clean designs and also connect to the rich Scottish history.

Finally, from a remote corner of Scotland's mainland, meet Clare Hawley: Inspired by the wildlife surrounding her cottage, her designs mirror the beauty of nature with simple, yet aesthetic silver pieces including some that are gold-plated. We also liked the fact that some smaller designs hit the sweet spot of affordable fine jewellery: They make a perfect gift of beautiful silver jewellery while simultaneously not putting your bank balance in jeopardy.

It will take a few weeks before we receive the first parcel of new designer jewellery as most items need to be produced first. After that, the ball is with us and we will work hard to capture the beauty of gorgeous Scottish Silver Jewellery in our photographs before they will be put up on our site, ready for you to explore and purchase.

Needless to say, all of the newly added items will adhere to British Hallmarking Standards, as do all of our existing items.

Meanwhile, we won't sit around moaning about an other gloomy winter day in Scotland but we will put our efforts on our latest addition of fine pearl jewellery. The items are currently being hallmarked and we expect them back any time soon, ready for us to meticulously take photographs and measurements to display their beauty to you.

Exciting times ahead and we recommend to watch this space ;-)

Best wishes,

Your JAREEYA-Team

Happy New Year from JAREEYA

December is nearing its end and with it we leave an other year behind us in the history books. And what a year it was! Leaving aside the geopolitical events, gossips and losses in the entertainment world, it was an exciting year for JAREEYA too!

JAREEYA was born beginning of 2016 and it took some time before the idea materialised itself in a real concept. After we got some products lined up that can be listed and sold on our website, it was time to develop the website. As usual, we did it from scratch to keep it clean, professional and functional, without superfluous overhead that only slows the page down. A few very hot weeks have been spent during our holidays in Thailand to prepare the listings – not an easy task when the thermometer breaks through the 40°C mark! A few weeks later, our website was up and running and ready for trade.

Of course, we didn't stop there: The website got regular updates and improvements and we added Pearl Earrings to our selection of fine jewellery. By the end of the year, we also got our hands on further Pearl Jewellery and you will be glad to know that it will be ready for you to explore at the beginning of 2017. The jewellery is with us already but it still awaits to be photographed, correctly described and – very important – hallmarked!

Other than adding to our choice of products we also took proactive steps to show our commitment that we are a genuine business and take your satisfaction serious and giving you the confidence that you get exactly what you were buying. To start with, we registered JAREEYA® as a brand-name in the UK. This shows commitment (since it doesn't come for free) and makes it harder for any other business to take our name and to pretend to be us.

Secondly, we applied for the Assay Assured program with the Edinburgh Assay Office and got approved just before Christmas. When you see the Assay Assured Trustmark, you know that you can buy in confidence. The program certifies that the retailer displays the metal content (fineness) of all precious metal jewellery and that all items that are not exempt by weight do carry a legal hallmark. Any approved retailer also agrees not to carry any counterfeitet branded jewellery. And should you have a query that you can not resolve with the retailer itself, the program acts as an independent arbiter.

It was a busy and successful year for us and will continue working hard to provide you with an even bigger choice of fine jewellery and outstanding customer service.

JAREEYA wishes everyone a Prosperous and Happy New Year, 2017!

Black Friday - Aftermath

Now that Black Friday is over, it's perhaps time to ask why JAREEYA was not involved in the hype and didn't entice its customers with special offers, freebies or discounts!?

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the US and retailers there used Black Friday as an opportunity to rid themselves of surplus stock by discounting prices. Thus, it is considered by many shoppers to grab a bargain on that day – something that isn't necessarily true in the UK as in some instances you may have to pay more for the same product than before or after this big shopping day. And for us: We don't have any surplus stock that would be related to Thanksgiving and we also don't feel the need to copy everybody else.

Furthermore, our prices are already set low and any discounts we would be able to offer are too small to be exciting. Also, it would require a lot of preparation for a single shopping day, diverting resources from more important areas, to work out what discounts we can offer on what products. We rather ensure a great customer service and shopping experience instead of offering a mediocre discount.

We also feel that Black Friday is overrated and we certainly don't want to push you into a buy you may later regret. After all, there are already plenty of special shopping days the big businesses try to part with your hard earned money.

By offering aggressive discounts on a single day may not give you enough time to research the products accurately. It is better for both you and ourselves if you have time to browse through the products that interest you and ensure you find the right piece at the set budget. Buying jewellery under time pressure is best avoided, especially if it's fine jewellery – in contrast to cheaper fashion jewellery.

To us, it seems unfair to other customers who may not be able to go shopping on a pre-set day by giving a price advantage on the basis that some other big retailers tell you to do so. We value all of our customers equally and we don't want to punish someone who buys a day earlier or who needs more time to think about a planned purchase and does the shopping on the weekend following Black Friday.

That said, no one will be stopped to buy from us on Black Friday. And we also don't rule out introducing vouchers or special promotions in the future. But we don't want to contribute to the hype of shopping days with aggressive discounts and prey on consumers who think they have to shop on a particular day for the best deal or otherwise they are too late. You should enjoy browsing our range of fine jewellery and not encountering the feeling of time pressure to by the very same day.

Enjoy your stay on our site,

Your JAREEYA-Team

New Product Line: Pearl Earrings

It might not always be obvious on our website, but we are constantly working hard in the background to provide you with a better service, high-quality photographs, new features and of course: New product lines. Pearls are one of the most favourite gems and most ladies will have some kind of pearl jewellery in their collection. And we felt that our range of products would not be complete without offering you some very fine pieces of pearl jewellery.

At present, we only stock a small selection of Pearl Earrings. However, work is in progress to add more designs to the earrings section and we are also in the process of sourcing further pearl jewellery like bracelets and necklaces.

Pearls have been used in jewellery for thousands of years. Perhaps the most famous reference to pearls comes from the myth that the Egyptian queen Cleopatra was dissolving one of her precious pearl earrings in vinegar to drink it, in order to win a bet over Mark Antony in who can throw the most lavish banquet.

Thanks to advance in culturing techniques, pearls are affordable in these days but should you wish to look for some thing more special you should consider Tahitian or South Sea pearls which – depending on the size and quality – can demand very high prices.

We hope you find some interesting earrings and in the meantime we will continue our task in increasing our selection of earrings and add further categories soon. It is worthwhile to regularly come back and we are always available for your questions or queries you might have.

Best wishes,

Your JAREEYA-Team

Checkout faster with JAREEYA

Tired of a long checkout process? No wonder why... First you go to your shopping cart, then you move on to the next page where you enter your personal details, after that you land on the payment page, followed by the order confirmation page before you are transferred to the payment provider's own site (if no on-site payment solution exists)... And finally, you may end up on the "Thank you" or "Order confirmation" page which confirms your order was received.

Let's make an analogy to a supermarket: You wander through the aisles, take the products you need from the shelf and place them in your trolley. When you are done, you are heading towards the checkout lane where an emotionless checkout assistant takes your billing and shipping address (your goods do get delivered though, unless you want to pick them up later). You are then sent to the next desk where you inspect the contents of your trolley and confirm that it is all you need and you are ready to pay. Still happy with your shopping? Good. Please proceed to the cashier – who may not even work in the same shop but is placed at the other side of town, and it takes time getting there. Once your payment has been taken, you then go to the supermarket's exit to pick up your receipt. If you were sent to the external cashier half across town, you have to return to the supermarket first! After getting hold of your receipt you are allowed to leave the shop, but not without a subtle invitation to "Continue Shopping".

Screenshot of Cart and Checkout Page

Obviously, the online world differs from the physical in many respects and the above supermarket comparison is not quite fair. But you see there are a lot of steps involved, all that are normally done at checkout. The analogy above of being sent around various counters or even an external payment site is the going from one page to the next in cyberspace. All these transfers adding time. Not useful time, but waiting time. In the case you are being transferred to a 3rd party payment provider (for example PayPal), it normally adds even more lag as a connection to a different server has to be established first.

Each step means a new page needs to be loaded and even on a rather fast website, it all adds up. So we streamlined our checkout process and got rid of all checkout pages. View your cart, enter your payment and shipment details and pay – all on the same site, quick and easy. The obvious advantage is a faster checkout process. Naturally, no advantage without a drawback but it is only a small one: The shopping cart page is marginally slower with loading but it is hardly noticeable and only a disadvantage to you if you add items to your cart and then don't checkout.

Without going into too much technical detail, what happens when you load a page is that your computer is establishing a connection with the server that hosts the website. Data like text, images and scripts are loaded by your computer after the connection has been established. Going to the next page on the same site, both computers (i.e. your device and the server) have to start talking to each other again. Waiting for the server to respond is a relatively time consuming step – transferring data is pretty fast in these days. In fact, on a well configured website, images and scripts are  temporarily stored on your computer and they don't need to be downloaded every time they are needed, which improves a site's speed.

To summarise the above: Our checkout process is faster because all necessary things for both the shopping cart as well as checkout are loaded at once rather than at several steps like in a traditional checkout process. The disadvantage is that the shopping cart page is slightly slower than it could be, but the difference is negligible and more than offsets by the benefist of our all-in-one solution.

We wish you a wonderful time browsing our site and hope you enjoy our site and its fast checkout process :-)

Your JAREEYA-Team

Care for Your Jewellery

Jewellery, like any other item, needs some care and attention. Properly looked after, jewellery can last for a long time and regularly cleaning should not be neglected. It not only keeps your precious pieces clean and sparkling, it also helps you save money by avoiding the need for expensive professional jewellery cleaning, or at least it makes such visits less frequent. Even a tough diamond benefits from a bit of cleaning.

To help you to look after your priced possessions, JAREEYA offers you the entire range of Connoisseurs® jewellery care products. Connoisseurs is a specialist in jewellery cleaning and care products and their range covers pretty much any kind of jewellery you can think of: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamonds, (Semi)Precious Stones, Pearls and even fashion and costume jewellery.

Connoisseurs Care Products Range

Looking after your jewellery should not be seen as a chore and the products from Connoisseurs are easy to use and also offer you different ways of cleaning. Wipe the tarnish off your silver items while simultaneously help preventing further build-up. Cover up tiny cracks in diamonds with their Diamond Dazzle Stik®. Give your golden chain a bath or use the Sonic Dazzle Stik for extraordinary cleaning results. There is a solution from Connoisseurs for nearly every type of jewellery.

Connoisseurs also offers a cleaning solution for delicate items like pearls and semi-precious stones like opal, coral, onyx or turquoise and is also suitable for fashion jewellery.

Since the world of jewellery covers many different materials, it is important that you choose the right product for the right material. For example, a product that is solely designed to be used for silver should never be applied to any other material as this may discolour or damage the piece. Some very sensitive items like pearls also require specialist products. If in doubt, it is always best to speak to a jewellery on how to clean an item.

Silver Dazzle Drops

One more word of warning: In case of diamonds and other (semi) precious stones, make sure you know whether they have been treated in any way. A diamond is a very tough stone which is not affected by most treatments. However, if a crack has been covered up with a filler, the filling material may be attacked by a cleaning solution or damaged when using an ultra-sonic cleaner. Treatments of diamonds and gemstones is a long subject and beyond the scope of this article, but the essence is to know your jewellery. Always make sure the jeweller you are buying from is disclosing any treatments and if in doubt with existing jewellery we recommend to seek professional advice.

Care products do not cost the world and are only a fraction of the cost of the jewellery itself (except for the cheapest of products of course). It is money well spent and ensures your jewellery always looks at its best, while at the same time prolonging the life of it. Not to mention the satisfaction you will get when you see the sparkle on your treasured pieces...

Enjoy browsing the range,

 Your JAREEYA-Team

Diamonds and their Four Cs

Here at JAREEYA, we don't sit still and work hard to provide you with a great and informative website. Not just for shopping, but also to provide you with some more insights and knowledge of the fantastic world of fine jewellery.

We put the first few articles together that deal with diamonds and what is to know about them. To start with, you can read about the famous Four Cs, to give you a quick starting point. This article summarises the four most commonly evaluated attributes of diamonds: Colour, Clarity, Carat weight and Cut.

Since the article is on our site, we do not go into too much detail here and instead only give a very brief summary of the four Cs here, to give you a taste what is discussed on our website:

Colour: The diamond's colour, graded from D (colourless) to Z (light yellow colour). The less colour a diamond has, the more valuable it generally is. Fancy coloured diamonds are not covered by the colour grading system of the four Cs.

Clarity: Looks at internal and surface defects of diamonds. Blemishes, inclusions, cracks, etc. all diminish the value of a diamond and in more severe cases can limit the durability of the stone itself. Flawless diamonds are priced the highest. Assessing the clarity of a diamond is a complex subject and requires the competence of a skilled grader.

Carat Weight: The title says it all: How heavy a particular stone is, measured in the units of Carat. One carat equals 0.2g (1/5 of a gram) and it is divided into 100 sub-units called points. All other factors being equal, the heavier a diamond is, the more expensive it is, although exceptions do exist when demand is higher for smaller stones.

Cut: Describes how a diamond is cut. The most common cut is brilliant (or round) cut. Other cuts are cushion, baguette, heart or fancy cut. Brilliant cut diamonds normally maximise a stone's beauty but other cuts may be suited better, depending on type of jewellery, to preserve an uncut stone's weight or to eliminate unsightly inclusions.

If you want to go into more details than just scratching the surface of the four Cs, then we also provide you with some more detailed articles for each of the four Cs, but without getting too technical. Currently, the following articles are available for you to browse:

• Diamonds and the 4 Cs
• Carat Weight
• Clarity Grading
• Colour Grading
• Cut (coming soon)

We hope you find the articles of interest and enjoy the read.

Best wishes,

Your JAREEYA-Team