|
8/2/2005
Amazon.com adds custom diamond rings to
its jewelry store
By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SEATTLE -- Eager to cash in on the growing
number of grooms-to-be who shop online, Amazon.com has started
giving its customers the chance to design their own diamond
rings.
The Seattle-based Internet retailer got into
the jewelry business nearly two years ago and has let customers
mix and match stones and settings, but selection was limited to
existing inventory.
The new "Create Your Own Ring" page enables
shoppers to pick and choose their way through more than a
million combinations, said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of
Amazon's jewelry division.
"Being able to combine the many thousands of
stones that we have with over 200 styles leads to a wider range
of choice for someone who is trying to find one of the most
special things they'll buy in their life," Grandinetti said.
The company announced the new feature Tuesday,
a day after it launched.
Across town, executives at online jewelry
retailer Blue Nile welcomed the competition, saying they're
confident they'll share in the wealth if Amazon raises the
profile of online ring buying.
"We have a lot of imitators in the
marketplace," Blue Nile CEO Mark Vadon said. "From our
perspective, it's a very positive thing seeing other people in
the market."
Blue Nile has racked up $565 million in
jewelry sales since it was founded in 1999. Last year, it posted
$169 million in sales - close to a fourfold increase from 2000,
its first full year in business. Diamond sales make up about
three-quarters of its yearly revenue.
Amazon, which started selling jewelry on a
test site in November 2003, doesn't break out revenues by
product line, but spokeswoman Jani Strand said jewelry has seen
"double-digit quarter-over-quarter growth."
Vadon said his customers have made clear that
they take comfort in knowing Blue Nile specializes in fine
jewelry.
"If you just look at the off-line world and
say, 'How many places in the world do consumers feel comfortable
buying an engagement ring alongside a bread maker and a Harry
Potter book?' it just doesn't exist," Vadon said.
Grandinetti countered that Amazon "has
obsessed for 10 years" over building up trust with customers,
who have gone from buying nothing but books to buying items as
pricey as $5,000 plasma-screen TVs.
"The most important thing that people want
when they buy a product like this is to trust who they're buying
it from," Grandinetti said.
Amazon's "Create Your Own Ring" page lets
customers sort their choices by sliding gold bars across scales
with a range of prices, shapes, sizes, cuts and other
characteristics. Or, as on Blue Nile's site, shoppers can plug
in their price range.
Amazon said it has an inventory of more than
17,000 loose diamonds ranging from .25 to five carats, eight
shapes and 40 different setting styles.
Blue Nile said it has more than 63,000
diamonds on hand. The range of carats available fluctuates
somewhat. On Tuesday, the smallest diamond was a .23-carat
princess-cut stone priced at $368. The biggest was a whopping
16.26-carat emerald-cut stone priced at more than $777,000.
Amazon caps its diamond prices at $125,000.
The first order came in Monday: a 1-carat round solitaire. The
company said it sold for "more than $5,000."
Safa Rashtchy, an analyst with Piper Jaffray,
said he doesn't expect the new service will provide a huge boost
to Amazon's bottom line, but he considers it a positive move.
"It will increase the time people spend on
Amazon," he said. "That's one of Amazon's goals. It's a way
Amazon can increase cross-selling products," when customers buy
across categories.
Amazon did not disclose where the custom rings
will be made, but said the work will be handled by in-house
jewelers within its network of distribution centers in Delaware,
Kansas, Kentucky and Nevada.
original link to article
---
On the Net:
Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com
Blue Nile:
http://www.bluenile.com
|
