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, now refreshed with October 2026 inventory figures. The Q2 data is the baseline everything else compares against.

The Q2 2026 leaderboard

Top 15 retailers by active listings as of October 2026:

Rank	Retailer	Active listings
1	NZ Jewellers	2,547,496
2	Carbon Sparkle	2,412,884
3	77 Diamonds	2,234,854
4	Aurelinne	2,194,349
5	Rare Carat	2,135,280
6	MOH London	2,030,595
7	The Perfect Carat	1,891,100
8	Yorxs	1,586,294
9	B2C Jewels	1,480,802
10	Loose Grown Diamond	1,476,577
11	William & Sons Jewelers	1,355,665
12	Taylor and Hart	1,341,732
13	Moon Ocean	1,209,137
14	Cape Diamonds	1,158,698
15	Calavera New York	1,124,349

NZ Jewellers leads with 2.55 million active listings, and six retailers now sit above 2 million. 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. Carbon Sparkle (2.41 million) and 77 Diamonds (2.23 million) round out the top three. None of the three appeared in our Q2 top 15, and Adiamor, our Q2 leader at 2.03 million, now sits outside it.

Taylor and Hart at rank 12 is still the most interesting entry on the board. It's primarily known as a custom engagement ring destination, not a diamond comparison platform. Yet 1.34 million active listings puts it ahead of Moon Ocean, Cape Diamonds, and Calavera New York. 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 (1.48 million), Loose Grown Diamond (1.48 million), William & Sons Jewelers (1.36 million), and Taylor and Hart (1.34 million) span just 140,000 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, rank 9 in Q2 with 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. In Q2 its active listing count sat roughly 56% below the top three, and it no longer makes the top 15 at all, where the cutoff is now 1,124,349. 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 (Loose Grown Diamond through Calavera New York) are meaningful players but noticeably smaller than the top eight. Calavera New York sits at 1,124,349 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 in Q2 concentrated in one segment: lab-grown. Retailers who specialised early and built their lab-grown catalogues aggressively climbed rankings faster than general-market competitors. Natural-focused retailers largely held steady.

Retailer	Q2 Rank	Oct 2026 Rank	Oct 2026 Inventory	Segment focus
Loose Grown Diamond	6	10	1,476,577	Lab-grown specialist
Cape Diamonds	7	14	1,158,698	Natural specialist
Brilliant Earth	9	Outside top 15	Below 1,124,349	Mixed, lab-grown prominent
Novita Diamonds	11	Outside top 15	Below 1,124,349	Lab-grown specialist
Friendly Diamonds	12	Outside top 15	Below 1,124,349	Lab-grown specialist

Loose Grown Diamond at rank 10 is still the standout. Its inventory grew from 1,352,314 in Q2 to 1,476,577, and a dedicated lab-grown retailer sitting above Cape Diamonds (14) 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. But nine retailers now carry more inventory, which pushed it down from rank 6, so rank 5 is further off than it looked in Q2.

Cape Diamonds at rank 14 shows the other side. As a natural specialist, it hasn't chased lab-grown catalogue growth. Its inventory slipped from 1,254,093 to 1,158,698 while lab-grown-focused competitors expanded. For buyers specifically after natural stones with strong provenance documentation, Cape Diamonds offers genuine depth that lab-grown specialists can't replicate.

Novita and Friendly Diamonds sat within 15,000 listings of each other at ranks 11 and 12 in Q2. Both are lab-grown specialists. Both have since dropped out of the top 15, so we can't yet say which one broke from the other. Worth watching.

Where lab-grown competition is fiercest

Loose Grown Diamond is the one dedicated lab-grown specialist from our Q2 list still in the top 15, and every broad-market retailer is 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 had their own story in Q2. 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 (NZ Jewellers through Yorxs) 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 Q4 will develop most interestingly. Loose Grown Diamond is expanding fast. Cape Diamonds, now down at rank 14, is holding its natural specialisation. B2C Jewels, just 4,225 listings ahead of Loose Grown Diamond, is a broad-market retailer with the sourcing relationships to expand into lab-grown if margin conditions call for it. If it 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. Neither is in the October top 15, so we're still waiting to find out which.

Brilliant Earth's inventory trajectory. It held relatively flat through Q2 while the broader market expanded, and by October 2026 it had dropped out of the top 15. Its relative position has weakened even if its absolute listing count hasn't fallen. 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 the end of 2026, 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 the end of 2026, 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 inventory figures above are current as of October 2026. Markup scores across the full index and a proper Q1 to Q3 movement comparison follow in the next leaderboard, with Q2 as the baseline.