Retailer Markup Leaderboard Q2 2026 Update

The spread in our retailer markup index has widened since Q1. Some retailers trimmed margins to stay competitive as lab-grown supply kept rising. Others held the line and let the gap open beneath them. How we calculate that spread is covered in our retailer markup methodology piece. This post covers who sits where, what shifted, and where buyers are finding the most competitive conditions across the 14 million diamonds we index.

This is the first quarterly update to the leaderboard. We'll run the same format in October for Q3. The Q2 data is the baseline everything else compares against.

The Q2 2026 leaderboard

Top 15 retailers by active listings entering Q3:

Rank	Retailer	Active listings
1	Adiamor	2,031,718
2	Yorxs	1,932,824
3	Rare Carat	1,873,267
4	Taylor and Hart	1,675,175
5	B2C Jewels	1,459,297
6	Loose Grown Diamond	1,352,314
7	Cape Diamonds	1,254,093
8	Brilliance	1,212,498
9	Brilliant Earth	871,885
10	Reve Diamonds	771,463
11	Novita Diamonds	699,298
12	Friendly Diamonds	684,709
13	RockHer	646,754
14	Moon Ocean	617,779
15	Allurez	527,906

Adiamor crosses 2 million active listings for the first time this quarter. That's not a vanity metric. At that scale, buyers comparing stones within a single platform have genuine options across nearly every spec range, which creates internal price pressure that benefits buyers. Yorxs (1.93 million) and Rare Carat (1.87 million) round out the top three. All three held their positions from Q1.

Taylor and Hart at rank 4 is the most interesting entry in the top five. It's primarily known as a custom engagement ring destination, not a diamond comparison platform. Yet 1.68 million active listings puts it ahead of B2C Jewels, Loose Grown Diamond, and seven other retailers that most buyers think of first. That depth can work in a buyer's favour if they know to check it alongside the more obvious comparison sites. Most don't.

The middle of the table is tightly bunched. B2C Jewels (1.46 million), Loose Grown Diamond (1.35 million), Cape Diamonds (1.25 million), and Brilliance (1.21 million) span just 250,000 listings. Movement in that band tends to produce the most active competitive dynamics, because no single retailer can afford to sit noticeably above market rate without losing traffic.

Brilliant Earth at rank 9 (871,885 listings) deserves specific attention. It markets more aggressively than almost any other retailer in the English-speaking world, particularly around ethical sourcing and sustainability. Its active listing count sits roughly 56% below the top three. Brand spend and inventory depth are different things. Buyers who treat them as the same are paying for a story, not a selection advantage.

The back six (Reve Diamonds through Allurez) are meaningful players but noticeably smaller than the top eight. Allurez sits at 527,906 listings, the smallest in our top 15. Smaller inventories don't automatically mean worse prices, but they do mean narrower selection in specific spec ranges. Buyers using retailers in this tier should be using our cross-retailer search to verify they're not missing better stones at the same price elsewhere.

What shifted since Q1

The notable movement this quarter concentrated in one segment: lab-grown. Retailers who specialised early and built their lab-grown catalogues aggressively have climbed rankings faster than general-market competitors. Natural-focused retailers largely held steady.

Retailer	Q2 Rank	Q2 Inventory	Segment focus
Loose Grown Diamond	6	1,352,314	Lab-grown specialist
Cape Diamonds	7	1,254,093	Natural specialist
Brilliant Earth	9	871,885	Mixed, lab-grown prominent
Novita Diamonds	11	699,298	Lab-grown specialist
Friendly Diamonds	12	684,709	Lab-grown specialist

Loose Grown Diamond at rank 6 is the standout. A dedicated lab-grown retailer sitting above Cape Diamonds (7) and Brilliance (8) in total inventory is a concrete measure of how fast the segment has scaled. In Q1, that position would have required broader market coverage. Now a specialist catalogue is enough. If the current expansion rate holds, rank 5 is not far off.

Cape Diamonds at rank 7 shows the other side. As a natural specialist, it hasn't chased lab-grown catalogue growth. Its inventory held solid but didn't expand at the pace of lab-grown-focused competitors. For buyers specifically after natural stones with strong provenance documentation, Cape Diamonds offers genuine depth that lab-grown specialists can't replicate.

Novita (rank 11) and Friendly Diamonds (rank 12) are within 15,000 listings of each other. Both are lab-grown specialists. Both are expanding. One of them will break from the other before Q3 closes, and whichever moves first will set the terms of the comparison. Worth watching.

Where lab-grown competition is fiercest

Three dedicated lab-grown specialists in the top 15 (Loose Grown Diamond, Novita, Friendly Diamonds), plus Brilliant Earth's significant lab-grown offering, plus all the broad-market retailers indexing the same stones. The competition in this segment is structural, not cyclical.

For rounds in popular weight brackets, specifically 0.7ct to 1.5ct at F to H colour and VS2 to SI1 clarity, we see the narrowest margins across the board. Buyers in those spec ranges have more direct comparisons available than almost anywhere else in the diamond market. Buyers outside those brackets have fewer reference points, which gives retailers more room to price.

The catch is that not all lab-grown inventory is sourced the same way. Some retailers pull from shared wholesale networks. Others have direct manufacturing relationships. Two stones with identical certifications and specs can differ meaningfully in cut execution, which isn't always visible in the grading report. This is precisely why comparing specific stones across retailers matters more in lab-grown than anywhere else. Same paper specs. Different stones in practice. The methodology we use for our index captures this distinction; the certificate numbers alone don't.

Lab-grown ovals have their own story this quarter. Demand in the best-performing length-to-width ratios outpaced supply, and some retailers responded by holding prices rather than letting them fall with the broader market. The category still prices well below natural oval equivalents, but the gap has narrowed from the historic lows we tracked through 2024. Buyers chasing specific fancy ratios are noticing it.

The broader lab-grown price trajectory remains downward, driven by manufacturing capacity growing faster than consumer demand. But the decline is uneven. Rounds are falling more predictably. Fancies are more volatile. Retailers know this and price accordingly.

Reading the tiers

Inventory scale and markup score are related but not the same thing. A retailer with 2 million listings can carry high markups on specific categories if it knows buyers aren't comparing well in that segment. A retailer with 600,000 listings can be consistently aggressive on price if its sourcing is tight and its margin targets are lean.

What the leaderboard tells you is which retailers have enough depth to give genuine options across a wide range of specs. The top 8 (Adiamor through Brilliance) are where competitive dynamics are strongest. Enough retailers are indexing the same spec ranges that significant margin padding tends to attract comparisons that expose it. Below rank 9, selection thins in specific categories. Natural fancy shapes above 1.5ct and high-colour rounds above 2ct are where you'll feel the narrowing most.

The middle tier, ranks 5 through 10, is where Q3 will develop most interestingly. Loose Grown Diamond is expanding fast. Cape Diamonds is holding its natural specialisation. Brilliance and B2C Jewels are broad-market retailers with the sourcing relationships to expand into lab-grown if margin conditions call for it. If either makes that move aggressively, the competitive picture for the specialists shifts.

For buyers spending above $15,000, inventory depth at the high end matters significantly. The top three retailers carry the broadest selection in premium colour grades above 2ct. Others thin out quickly. Checking multiple retailers at that price point isn't optional; it's where the biggest per-unit savings live.

What we're watching in Q3

Whether Novita and Friendly Diamonds separate or stay locked together. Both lab-grown specialists with near-identical Q2 inventory counts. One will scale more aggressively, or one will pull margins tighter. We'll find out which.

Brilliant Earth's inventory trajectory. It held relatively flat while the broader market expanded. If that continues through Q3, its relative position weakens further even if its absolute listing count doesn't fall. That's a selection statement buyers should factor in.

The natural fancy premium. Cape Diamonds is our clearest signal for this. If its inventory composition shifts toward fancy shapes by October, it's responding to margin opportunity. If it stays broadly sourced, the market isn't sending that signal yet.

And the lab-grown oval price floor. If supply catches up to demand in popular length-to-width ratios before Q3 closes, prices should resume their downward trend. If it doesn't, buyers who need specific fancy ratios will be paying more than the overall lab-grown narrative suggests.

The October leaderboard runs the same format. Same retailers, updated inventory, markup scores across the full index, and a proper Q1 to Q3 movement comparison once the Q2 baseline has had a full quarter to work against.