Nordstrom, Blue Nile Begin Courtship In "Clicks And Bricks" Experiment

By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA

Online jeweler opens showcase in Nordstrom brick-and-mortar store

In another development of the “clicks to bricks” trend, Seattle Internet jeweler Blue Nile and retailer Nordstrom announced that they are testing out a six-month partnership to bring some glitter into Nordstrom stores this holiday season. Nordstrom customers visiting the downtown Seattle flagship store’s Wedding Suite can now browse through a selection of 75 engagement rings and 40 wedding bands — and talk one-on-one with Blue Nile’s jewelry consultants. In keeping with Blue Nile’s online roots, however, all jewelry purchases will be made online. To facilitate this process, Blue Nile will provide iPads so that Nordstrom customers can become more familiar with BlueNile.com and engage with the website in-store. Customers will be able to use the “Build your Own Ring” feature — especially beneficial as customers will be learning first-hand at Nordstrom’s what ring features they like most.

For Blue Nile, this experimental partnership serves as important exposure for the brand, giving customers the opportunity to interact with Blue Nile products before purchasing. It also will give the jeweler a chance to build face-to-face relationships with customers --advising them through an important decision — without costing the jeweler the large expenses that come with a brick-and-mortar store. As Blue Nile CMO Julie Yoakum says, “This is about seeing it, trying it on, and generating interest for future purchases.”

And if all goes well, this partnership could turn into a permanent marriage, with Blue Nile being integrated into the other 17 Wedding Suite salons at Nordstrom stores around the country. This is not only the hope for Blue Nile, but also for Nordstrom. The brick-and-mortar stores stand to gain more exposure from this connection as loyal online Blue Nile customers venture in to see their favorite pieces up close — and hopefully, stick around to start looking at the wedding attire Nordstrom offers. Shea Jensen, the national weddings director at Nordstrom says, “For us, the most exciting thing is the opportunity to meet new customers and introduce them to wedding suite.”

Additional ways brick-and-mortar stores can gain a competitive advantage

While Blue Nile is branching out for the first time into a brick-and-mortar store, Nordstrom only hopes to keep drawing more customers into stores and amping up its online business in the future. So far, the moves the company has made to bring in more e-commerce revenue are keeping the retailer on track to earning $6 billion a year in online sales by 2020. These developments include working with men’s online clothier Bonobos in 2012 and the acquisition of flash-sale website HauteLook in 2011. HauteLook in particular has provided the company with access to the increasingly important and tech-savvy younger generation that has grown increasingly reliant on using the Internet on their path-to-purchase. Now, with the retailer’s potential full-time partnership with Blue Nile, the company only stands to gain more exposure from members of the Millennial Generation looking to celebrate engagements and weddings in Nordstrom’s bricks-and-mortar stores.

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