Holiday Exclusives, Redesign Boost Season for Blue Nile

Online diamond retailer Blue Nile’s holiday sales are up, thanks to daily specials and a newly revamped Web site.

In November, the site began offering daily “holiday exclusives,” sale items available in limited quantity. So far, about 70% of those items have sold out, said John Baird, director of corporate communications for the Seattle-based marketer.

(It should be noted that many of these aren’t really “door buster, bargain basement” specials either. For Tuesday, Dec. 15, the special was an 18ct white gold necklace with 115 diamonds, discounted to $11,950 from $16,000.)

Blue Nile has also experienced its highest Cyber Monday sales ever, said Baird, noting that was likely boosted by an offer of free overnight FedEx shipping on all orders.

The redesigned site—using Adobe Scene7 technology—debuted in September. Blue Nile’s typical customer is an educated male and in his 20s to 40s, with a high disposable income. He is comfortable making big purchases online and often lives in a metropolitan area.

One big factor that influenced Blue Nile’s site redesign is the fact that men shop differently than women, said Eric Vadon, director of site development. While a woman shopping for a diamond might be very specific about cut, color, shape or setting, a man is more inclined to shop by price.

“They typically have a specific price point in mind,” Vadon noted.

(Of course, if a man is shopping for himself, then the gender divide narrows. If he was shopping for golf gear, for example, he’d know precisely what type of club he wanted to purchase.)

Blue Nile’s site design hasn’t been radically refreshed since the site debuted in 1999. Then, Vadon said, it was a different online world. More people were using dial-up, and computer screens displayed different resolutions, meaning the types of visuals that could be presented then were more limited.

The redesign highlights a bigger selection of items, as well as increased capabilities to search by specifications like price, gemstone or type of jewelry (bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc.)
Another consideration was to get the look and feel of the site right, said Vadon. While they didn’t want the design to be too complicated for users, they didn’t want it to be too utilitarian either. “Amazon, for example, is easy to use but isn’t high fashion,” he noted.

Blue Nile is slowly easing into social media, noted Baird. Fans of the site’s Facebook page have gotten early peeks at the holiday exclusives. Twitter, however, is a bit more of an enigma. For example, Blue Nile recently sold a $200,000 engagement ring to a customer.

“That sort of offering is hard to translate into 140 characters,” said Baird. “We’re trying to determine whether that customer is using Twitter to shop.”