Jeweler, Orori, Set to Do Battle for Market Share with 3D Printing

Orori was once a group of brick-and-mortar jewelry stores, but back in 2012 the firm closed those shops and made the move to an ecommerce business model. Now the online version of Orori has expanded with a host of 3D printing options for their customers.

George Budi Sumantri, the founder of the company, says the site now offers more than 20,000 products and they make their jewelry on demand using 3D printers.

They call the new feature ‘Design My Own,’ and it allows users to create custom designs for their jewelry. As part of the Design My Own shopping experience, a user can select a diamond based on budget, shape, color, carat, cut, and clarity and then choose the band and setting. The system also allows users to type in their input for engravings and then review how their message will appear on the piece.

The process includes a 360-degree image of the product for review by the customer.

Orori (the name came from the Italian word for gold, ‘Oro’, and ‘Ri’ which is short for rings) started in 2004 when Budi Sumantri, whose family has been in jewelry sales since the 1950s, noticed Blue Nile, an online retailer of jewelry in the US.

Orori sells diamonds, rings, necklaces, pendants, bracelets, earrings, and a few different types of gold bars, as well as jewelry accessories. While Orori is only able to take orders from Indonesia at this point, an English-language version of the site is planned for the third quarter of this year.

And the competition in the market place is tough indeed. Eddie Bakhash, the CEO of American Pearl, is already making waves in the industry. American Pearl uses proprietary, computer-aided design (CAD) software to drive a Solidscape T-76 3D printer. The combination allows shoppers to customize their designs and have the finished product delivered in 3 or 4 days.

“We’ve had a great deal of difficulty competing with cheap labor overseas,” said Bakhash. “Now, with the advent of our platform, we’re no longer taking off-the-shelf parts and welding. There’s no jeweler at a bench with a blowtorch. The cost and labor savings is phenomenal. And we’re empowering consumers to make jewelry in real-time.”

American Pearl’s software produces a 3D printed model of each piece of jewelry, which is output in thermoplastic wax to create molds for casting.

Online jewelry retailers like Orori, BaubleBar, BlueStone, American Pearl, and Blue Nile – the world’s largest online retailer of certified diamonds and fine jewelry – have generated interest from investors. A McKinsey report entitled “A multifaceted future: The jewelry industry in 2020” says that while online jewelry amount to just 4-5% of the market today, it could reach 10% for fine jewelry and perhaps 15% for fashion jewelry by the year 2020, and customization with 3D printing is likely to drive that expansion.

Would you design your own ring or jewelry using an online interface and 3D printing? Let us know in the Orori 3D Printing forum thread on 3DPB.com.