Blue Nile Tests The Waters With New Storefront

The online diamond retailer opened its first brick-and-mortar outlet, or “webroom” as the company calls it, in Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island last week (June 5). Seen as a pioneer in the online jewelry business, Blue Nile’s latest move follows a successful physical retail presence at select Nordstrom locations.

“Millennials want to be in the driver’s seat whether it’s on a PC, phone or tablet or now in New York with an in-store experience,” Blue Nile CEO Harvey Kanter said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “It’s all about the experience and bringing the non-commissioned, high-quality education, counsel and guidance to the consumer.”

According to Blue Nile, 91 percent of the customers who visited the company’s temporary display at the Roosevelt Field Nordstrom location were there for Blue Nile specifically, as opposed to being random Nordstrom customers.

“It really only made sense to expand this test into our own storefront that we can control from top to bottom,” a Blue Nile spokesman told Internet Retailer.

The 325-square-foot outlet will showcase the e-retailer’s style offerings and promote interaction with staffers, but shoppers will still be directed online to complete purchases.

Kanter confirmed the webroom will serve as a learning experience, but also a new way to reach both news customers and core Blue Nile consumers.

“The jeweler has been around since 1999 and, along with Amazon, is one of the first established virtual retailers to make the shift. Just as physical retailers are rushing to improve their Web experience, the ‘omnichannel’ challenge is coming to traditional Web retailers, too,” Yahoo Finance reported.

Online retailers expanding into brick-and-mortar locations continue to be an on-going trend. With and increased number of shoppers seeking the ability to see, touch and feel the products they buy, the list of e-retailers making physical roots may increase.

Data released by researcher Euromonitor earlier this year showed that despite growth in internet retailing, store-based sales were reclaiming some ground.

Warby Parker, the well-known online eyeglasses retailer, opened its first physical location as an expansion of their (up until then) online-only business in 2013. As of today, nearly half of the company’s 500 employees now work in a physical store.

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