Few people expected anyone to buy an engagement ring online. Diamonds were costly, emotional purchases sold in hushed stores with heavy markups. Blue Nile, founded in Seattle in 1999, put thousands of certified diamonds on the web with their cut, color, clarity and carat in plain view. By the time it went public in May 2004, it had shown that careful buyers would spend thousands of dollars on a ring they had only seen on a screen.

Grading Reports Beat Velvet

Blue Nile bet that information would beat atmosphere. It listed grading reports and prices openly, so shoppers could compare stones the way they compared other goods. Suppliers held most of the diamonds Blue Nile listed. That kept its costs low and let it charge far less than a typical store. Its return policy and certified grading gave buyers the confidence to spend.

From Website to Showroom

Blue Nile priced its IPO at $20.50 a share in May 2004 and listed on Nasdaq under the ticker NILE. The stock rose sharply on its first day. Blue Nile became the best-known online jeweler in America and expanded abroad. In 2017 a group led by Bain Capital took the company private for about $500 million. After that, the online jeweler opened physical showrooms.

Cover: The Jewel River of Plovers (Chidori no Tamagawa), from an untitled series of Six Jewel Rivers, Suzuki Harunobu. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the Jewel River of Plovers (jewels and water).