ALROSA announced yesterday that it, along with Tencent and Everledger was launching a new WeChat Mini Program e-commerce solution for Chinese retailers, which would seamlessly enable the purchase of diamonds with full transparency with regard to their origin, characteristics and ownership history.

The new Mini-Program has been created by ALROSA, largest volume producer of diamonds in the world and independent technology company Everledger, which has creator of WeChat, Tencent as one of its investors.

We Chat is one of the world’s largest social media and e-commerce platforms, and the new collaboration will put transparent and secure diamond information at the fingertips of potentially a billion active WeChat users.

The Mini-Program is the first product to capitalise on the synergy between Everledger and Tencent, after the latter’s investment in the tech company.

A pilot that will showcase diamonds from ALROSA, enabling full traceability from mine to consumer, will be offered as a white label API for jewellery manufacturers and retailers in China who wish to offer consumers more innovative and insightful stories about their products and their brand, and so expand their ecommerce proposition. It will enable a better informed and more secure purchase for consumers as well as a more seamless online-to-offline user experience, ALROSA noted.

By enabling new touch points between consumers, jewellery manufacturers and retailers, the Mini Program will encourage brand differentiation in the highly competitive Chinese luxury market, the partners announced.

Consumers will be offered unprecedented levels of transparency and trust around the origin, characteristics and authenticity of the jewellery they purchase. Using the WeChat Mini Program on their smartphone, consumers can check an individual diamond’s full provenance and unique certificate information, purchase the diamond in the Mini Program using WeChat Pay, and also attest its ownership through the Everledger blockchain platform.

ALROSA will provide information on their diamonds extracted in Russia, thus enabling consumers to know the exact origin of each stone and have certainty around its sustainable and ethical footprint. According to an independent study conducted by PwC Advisory, ALROSA is a leader among gold and diamond mining companies in terms of investments in social programme.

Pavel Vinikhin, Head of Diamonds of ALROSA (the company’s polishing branch), commented: “We are delighted to support this WeChat Mini Program with Everledger, as it reinforces our pursuit for guaranteeing the origin of our products. We believe that this collaboration with the most popular social media platform in China will help us to further strengthen our sales there.”

Evgeny Gokhberg, Head of Europe at Everledger, notes: “This is a groundbreaking initiative with the titans of the diamond and internet industries. We’re glad to partner with ALROSA, as we share the same goal of enabling more transparency to the market. By providing 100% certainty of a diamond’s origin and journey to the consumer, in an easy-to-experience online platform such as WeChat, we are confident that this innovation will set a new standard when it comes to traceability and responsible business practices.”

Commenting on the importance of this pilot for Everledger’s expansion, Chris Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, said: “This exciting development mobilizes our strong partnerships with Tencent and ALROSA to bring provenance and authenticity of diamonds to a new level of transparency in China. Making this information available to consumers’ fingertips via WeChat enables them to be sure about the source and the credentials of each item being purchased.”

Leanne Kemp, founder and CEO of Everledger, adds: “This pioneering collaboration is exactly why we launched Everledger – and it shows how far we have come since our humble beginnings in 2015. Our blockchain and IoT solutions will enable key stakeholders in the jewellery industry to bring secure and reputable information to consumers in China and beyond. The WeChat Mini Program delivers on our scalable vision for more transparent, frictionless, and sustainable value chains, providing a new benchmark for customer focus and transparency in the diamond industry.”