Jewelry e-tail keeps venturing into standard retail.
Blue Nile is continuing its brick-and-mortar expansion, which it began last year after temporarily putting it on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently, the company opened two showrooms in California—in San Jose and Los Angeles—bringing its nationwide showroom total to 10.
Those locations will soon be joined by two more: one in Austin, Texas, due to open May 14, and another in Scottsdale, Ariz., due to open May 28, according to Blue Nile’s site.
But Blue Nile—which has said it may open as many as 50 to 100 retail webrooms in the next few years—clearly isn’t done. A store in the King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pa., is coming soon, according to a listing at that mall. And a showroom at the Aventura Mall near Miami is also coming soon, that mall says.
Another digitally native brand, Clean Origin, which specializes in lab-grown diamonds, opened its first-ever retail store earlier this month at the Stonebriar Centre Mall in Frisco, Texas, close to Dallas.
The Clean Origin store is quite possibly the only ground-level store currently open that is devoted solely to man-made diamonds; others have tried over the years, and closed. Some other “digitally native” stores spotlight lab-grown diamonds, but they also sell non-diamond simulants.
In a statement, Clean Origin hinted it may also open more stores.
“The move from digital-first to omnichannel has been in the company’s playbook since day one,” Clean Origin said in a statement, adding that its new store has an “open setting where customers can come and explore.”
Clean Origin—which also runs a second lab-grown e-tailer, Great Heights—was founded by industry veteran Alexander Weindling in 2017. Former Signet CEO Terry Burman, no stranger to the mall jewelry business, is a member of the company’s advisory board.
(Photo courtesy of Clean Origin)
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