SEATTLE, July 28, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Nile, Inc. (Nasdaq:NILE), the leading online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, today announced the launch of its Recently Purchased engagement rings feature. The new feature enables customers to see more than 1,300 customized engagement rings, while also reviewing the ring's corresponding quality characteristics, and diamond and setting price. The breadth of rings and accompanying information makes it the largest and most information rich engagement ring database of its kind, Blue Nile believes.
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"The Recently Purchased feature enhances Blue Nile's proprietary BUILD YOUR OWN RING® by showing consumers photos of completed engagement rings in conjunction with detailed quality characteristics and pricing information," said Senior Vice President of Technology Marianne Marck. "The wealth of information and product visualization creates a powerful shopping experience unique in jewelry retail."
Recently Purchased was created to provide an even more transparent and empowering diamond and jewelry shopping process. Corresponding to each engagement ring photo is that ring's quality characteristics. Consumers can see the diamond's Four Cs – cut, color, clarity, and carat weight, as well as the diamond's price. The quality and pricing details of the setting are also provided.
Consumers can use Recently Purchased to understand how changes to quality, carat weight, and setting influence the engagement ring's final price. This information enables them to make tradeoffs to find the perfect ring according to their budget parameters.
It also works as a visualization aid, demonstrating how changing the quality characteristics of the diamond will impact appearance. For example, by using Recently Purchased, it's possible to see the difference between a 1.25 carat and 1.5 carat diamond. It also provides a more complete understanding of how changes in color grade might affect appearance.
"Unlike other online retailers where a single image can illustrate a product for years, each Blue Nile engagement ring is unique, created by hand by our expert jewelry craftsmen," said Marck. "Our challenge was to capture the beauty of our completed engagement rings in real time, while also providing a more empowering, information-based shopping process for our customers. Recently Purchased not only accomplishes both, but has won raves from customers."
While Recently Purchased currently boasts more than 1,300 engagement rings, the database is constantly growing and evolving. New engagement rings and their corresponding quality details are added each day, ensuring the feature becomes even more powerful for consumers over time.
About Blue Nile, Inc.
Blue Nile, Inc. is the leading online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry. The Company delivers the ultimate customer experience, providing consumers with a superior way to buy engagement rings, wedding rings and fine jewelry. Blue Nile offers in-depth educational materials and unique online tools that place consumers in control of the jewelry shopping process. The Company has some of the highest quality standards in the industry and offers thousands of independently certified diamonds and fine jewelry at prices significantly below traditional retail. Blue Nile can be found online at www.bluenile.com, www.bluenile.ca and www.bluenile.co.uk. Blue Nile's shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC under the symbol NILE.
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