Upscale online jeweler Blue Nile opening 2nd Northern California store — in a mall near you

Upscale jewelry brand Blue Nile Inc., which sold its jewelry exclusively online for 20 years, is opening just ts second Northern California store, inside the Westfield Galleria at Roseville this month.

Blue Nile, which began selling online in 1999, changed its strategy in late 2020 because of requests by customers to see jewelry in person. The company specializes in engagement rings.

The Roseville location, slated to open Friday, is the company’s 24th in the U.S and fifth in California. Its only other location in Northern California is at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose.

The company’s showrooms are in top-end mall locations known for housing luxury goods stores. A Gucci store opened up in the Galleria in late April. The mall already housed fashion retailer Louis Vuitton and jeweler Tiffany.

In a news release announcing the opening, the company said it aims “to create meaningful connections to consumers where they prefer to shop, whether online or in-person.”

You can look, but don’t take

Blue Nile operates its stores as showrooms. While customers can place orders at the stores, the jewelry is not immediately available to be carried out of the stores.

The showroom opening comes on the heels of an Aug. 9 announcement that Signet Jewelers, the publicly-traded owners of the Zales brand, plans to acquire Blue Nile for $360 million in an all-cash deal.

Analysts said the move by Signet was aimed at growing the company’s bridal business and taking advantage of Blue Nile’s younger customer demographic.

The price paid by Signet in the competitive jewelry retail industry was significantly less than what Blue Nile was worth just five years earlier. Then publicly-traded Blue Nile was taken private in an approximate $500 million deal in 2017 by private equity firms Bain Capital and Bow Street.

The Blue Nile showroom at the Galleria replaces another jewelry store that closed during the pandemic, Helzberg Diamonds.

That jewelry chain is owned by billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.

This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 9:05 AM.