How We Price Our Jewellery: No Retail Markup, No Secrets

Published June 2018 · Transparency · 7 min read

There's a moment that happens in traditional jewellery stores — and increasingly on traditional jewellery websites — that most of us have experienced. You find a piece you love. You turn it over. You see the price. And a small voice in the back of your mind wonders: "Is this what it's actually worth? Or am I paying for the marble floors, the magazine advertisements, and the name on the box?"

That voice is usually right. The traditional jewellery industry operates on markups that would be considered extraordinary in almost any other sector. A piece that costs €100 to produce might sell for €500 at wholesale and €1,200 at retail. The customer pays for every step in a long, expensive chain — and most of those steps add nothing to the quality of the jewellery itself.

At LOTTEDS, we think you deserve to know exactly where your money goes. Not in vague percentages. Not in marketing platitudes about "affordable luxury." In actual, line-by-line transparency. So here it is: the complete breakdown of how we price our jewellery — and how it compares to the traditional model.

The Traditional Jewellery Pricing Model

To understand why LOTTEDS prices are different, you first need to understand how traditional jewellery pricing works. The model hasn't changed substantially in a century:

1. Materials & Labour (Production Cost): The actual cost of making the piece — the metal, the stones, the craftsperson's time. In traditional jewellery, this typically represents 10–20% of the final retail price. Let that sink in: for a €1,000 piece, the materials and the person who made it might account for just €100–200.
2. Brand Markup (3–5×): The brand adds a multiplier to cover their own operations — design, marketing, executive salaries, profit margin. A piece that cost €200 to produce might leave the brand's workshop with a wholesale price of €600–1,000.
3. Wholesale Markup (2×): If the brand sells through distributors or wholesalers — which most traditional brands do — the wholesaler adds their own margin. That €600 piece is now €1,200.
4. Retail Markup (2–3×): The jewellery store — whether it's on Bond Street, the Place Vendôme, or a premium shopping centre — adds their margin to cover rent, staff commissions, display cases, security, and profit. That €1,200 piece is now €2,400–3,600 on the shelf.

By the time a piece reaches you, it's been marked up 5–10 times from its actual production cost. And here's the crucial point: none of those markups made the jewellery itself any better. The gold is the same gold. The diamonds are the same diamonds. The craftsperson's work is the same work. The additional €2,000 you paid went to rent, advertising, and the profit margins of multiple intermediaries — not to the quality of what you're wearing.

This is not a secret. The industry knows it. But it's rarely discussed openly with customers — because the model depends on customers not knowing.

The LOTTEDS Pricing Model

We eliminate every step between our workshop and your jewellery box. There is no wholesaler. There is no retail store. There is no celebrity ambassador whose multi-million-euro contract is amortised across every bracelet sold. There is no Fifth Avenue or Bond Street lease. There is no commission-earning salesperson. There is just us — the people who design, make, and stand behind the jewellery — and you.

Here's where your money actually goes when you buy a LOTTEDS piece:

Percentages are approximate and vary by piece. A diamond-heavy ring allocates more to materials; a hand-engraved piece allocates more to craftsmanship. The principle remains constant: the vast majority of what you pay goes directly into the thing you're buying.

Let's break down each component:

Materials & Stones (~45%)

This is the largest single allocation — and deliberately so. We spend more on materials, as a percentage of the final price, than almost any traditional jewellery brand. Our 316L stainless steel costs more than the brass used by fast-fashion brands. Our PVD 18K gold process uses real gold, vaporised and bonded at the molecular level — not a thin wash that fades in months. Our lab-grown diamonds and moissanite are premium-grade stones, fully certified and traceable. We could use cheaper materials — and we'd make significantly more margin if we did. But Livia's founding rule was that every piece must pass the skin test first. Cheap materials fail that test. So we don't use them.

Craftsmanship & Labour (~30%)

Every LOTTEDS piece is hand-finished by artisans who are paid above-market wages. We work with small ateliers, not mass-production factories. The people who make our jewellery have names, faces, and expertise accumulated over years or decades. This costs more than automated mass production — but the difference is visible in every polished surface, every precisely set stone, every clasp that operates smoothly even after thousands of cycles. We believe that how something is made matters as much as what it's made from. See inside our atelier →

Operations & Shipping (~15%)

This covers everything that gets the jewellery from our workshop to your door: quality inspection, packaging (reusable boxes, not disposable plastic), air freight via DHL/FedEx/UPS, insurance on every shipment, and the team that handles customer service. We don't skimp here either — every order is fully insured, every shipment is tracked, and our concierge team responds to emails within hours, not days. Shipping details →

Our Margin (~10%)

This is what keeps LOTTEDS running — the profit that allows us to design new collections, maintain our Lifetime Warranty, and pay our team. At approximately 10%, it's dramatically lower than the traditional jewellery industry's margins. We can sustain this because we don't have the overhead of a traditional brand: no retail stores, no wholesale network, no celebrity endorsement contracts, no glossy magazine campaigns. The margin is modest — and that's by design. Livia didn't start this company to get rich. She started it to solve a problem.

Why Lab-Grown Stones Matter for Pricing

A significant portion of the price difference between LOTTEDS and traditional jewellery comes from our use of lab-grown diamonds and moissanite. This is not a quality compromise — it's an economic rationalisation. Mined diamond prices are not driven by natural scarcity. They're driven by supply control that has been carefully managed for over a century. A small number of companies control the majority of rough diamond production and release stones into the market at rates designed to maintain high prices. This is not a conspiracy theory — it's the documented structure of the diamond industry.

Lab-grown diamonds bypass this entirely. They are produced by technology companies in competitive markets. Supply responds to actual demand, not to a cartel's strategic release schedule. The price reflects what the stone costs to grow, cut, and polish — plus a reasonable margin — rather than what a managed market has decided the market will bear. The result: identical stones at 60–70% less cost. Lab-grown vs. mined: the full story →

The same logic applies to moissanite — a gemstone that offers more fire and brilliance than diamond, at a fraction of the price, with zero mining footprint. Learn about moissanite →

What We Don't Spend Money On

Sometimes the most revealing part of a pricing model is what's absent. Here's what you won't find factored into the price of any LOTTEDS piece:

• Retail rent: No physical stores means no passing on the cost of premium high-street locations to customers.
• Wholesale margins: No middlemen between our workshop and your jewellery box.
• Celebrity endorsements: We don't pay famous people to wear our jewellery. We'd rather put that budget into better materials.
• Glossy advertising: No multi-page spreads in fashion magazines. Our marketing is our product and our customer reviews.
• Commissioned salespeople: No one earns a commission on your purchase. Our concierge team is paid to help you find the right piece — not to maximise your spend.
• Artificial scarcity: We don't limit production to inflate perceived value. If a piece is popular, we make more of it.

What About Sales and Discounts?

We rarely run traditional sales — because our prices are already set close to what pieces cost to make. Drastic discounting would mean either losing money on every sale (unsustainable) or inflating the initial price to create artificial "savings" (deceptive). Neither option aligns with how we operate.

Instead, we reward loyalty through mechanisms that grow with your relationship to LOTTEDS:

• Automatic cart discounts: Buy 2, get 1 at 50% off. Buy 5, get 1 free. Buy 8, get 2 free. These are applied automatically at checkout — no codes, no catches. How cart discounts work →
• The LOTTEDS Circle: Our loyalty programme rewards repeat customers with free shipping, birthday discounts, early access to new collections, and — for our Gold and SVIP members — surprise gift packages containing real jewellery, not samples or coupons. Explore The Circle →
• Newsletter sign-up: Join our mailing list and receive 8% off your first order. Sign up →

These are not gimmicks. They're ways to reward people who choose to build a relationship with LOTTEDS — without devaluing the craftsmanship of the pieces themselves.

Comparison: Traditional vs. LOTTEDS

Let's make this concrete. Here's a hypothetical comparison of where €500 goes when you buy a piece of jewellery through the traditional model versus through LOTTEDS:

In the traditional model, roughly 15–25% of your money goes into the actual jewellery. The rest goes into the machinery of selling it to you — the stores, the advertising, the intermediaries, the brand story. At LOTTEDS, approximately 75% of your money goes directly into the jewellery itself — the materials and the hands that made it. The difference is not marginal. It's structural.

Fair Prices, Real Quality

Our Bob Collection and Giorno Collection pieces deliver PVD 18K gold, 316L steel, and lab-grown gems at prices that reflect what they actually cost to make.

Bob Collection → · Giorno →

Smart Buys Across Every Category

From everyday essentials to trending pieces, every LOTTEDS item is priced transparently — no inflated markups, no hidden costs.

Essentials → · Hot Sale →

Rings Priced Right

Our rings offer the look and feel of fine jewellery — without the traditional 5–10× markup. See the difference transparent pricing makes.

Shop Rings → · Shop Sale →

Common Questions About Pricing

"If your prices are so fair, how do you stay in business?"

By being efficient. We don't have the overhead of a traditional jewellery brand — no retail leases, no wholesale network, no celebrity contracts, no expensive advertising. Our margin is modest, but our costs are low enough that the margin sustains us. We also benefit from the fact that 316L steel and lab-grown stones cost less than mined gold and diamonds — not because they're inferior, but because their supply chains are shorter, more transparent, and free from artificial scarcity. We pass those savings to you and keep enough to keep the lights on and the workshop running.

"Does a lower price mean lower quality?"

Only if you equate quality with price — which, in the traditional jewellery industry, is exactly what the pricing model encourages you to do. The reality is that our materials are objectively superior to those used in comparably priced jewellery. While other brands at similar price points are using brass and electroplating, we're using 316L surgical steel and PVD. While they're using cubic zirconia, we're using lab-grown diamonds and moissanite. The quality is higher. The price is lower. The difference is the elimination of the markup chain — not a compromise on materials or craftsmanship.

The Bottom Line

When you buy a LOTTEDS piece, you're paying for the thing itself: the metal, the stones, the hands that shaped them, and the service that stands behind them. You're not paying for a story. You're not paying for a glass display case on a famous street. You're not paying for a celebrity's fee or a magazine's advertising rates. You're paying for jewellery — and almost nothing else.

We believe this is how it should be. Not because we're virtuous. Because we're practical. Livia started this company to solve a problem: jewellery that irritated skin and disappointed the people who wore it. Solving that problem required honest materials at honest prices. The transparent pricing followed naturally from the founding mission. It's not a marketing strategy. It's just how we work.

PVD vs. Traditional Plating → · Materials & Craftsmanship → · Lab-Grown vs. Mined →