Engagement Rings in 2008 May Be Smaller

A year ago, Blue Nile was a Wall Street darling as its stock traded above $80 and U.S. consumers, seemingly oblivious to signs of a slowing economy, shelled out thousands of dollars for diamond-engagement rings.

Now, Blue Nile’s stock is below $40, and consumers no longer are oblivious: In a conference call with analysts Tuesday, Blue Nile executives said consumers are trading down to less-expensive jewelry on its Web site amid tough economic conditions.

“Customers in the second quarter of 2008 on average bought smaller carat stones compared to a year ago,” said Chief Financial Officer Marc Stolzman…

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008094431_bluenile060.html

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Buying A Diamond Online

Planning to buy a diamond for that special someone this holiday? Whether you’re looking for an engagement ring, diamond earrings or another sparkler, this is a prime time for shopping — in fact, half of consumers plan to buy jewelry this year, and about one in six of those will shop for diamonds, according to a survey by National Jewelry.

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7393805

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Square Cut Diamonds Popular With Modern Brides

Say the words engagement ring and the first thing that often comes to mind is the classic ring, the brilliant-cut round solitaire, most often set in a white gold mount on a yellow gold band. But the times are changing and other cuts are becoming the new trend. Bloomberg has a report on diamond cut trends for engagement rings. While the round is still the most popular shape, research from the Diamond Information Center reports that square cuts are now a full 30 percent of the market up from just nine percent in 1999.

http://www.gadgets.luxist.com/2007/11/28/square-cut-diamonds-popular-with-modern-brides/

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De Beers Enters the Online Diamond Market

Watch out Blue Nile!

Buying a $10 paperback from Amazon or a 99-cent new release from iTunes is now commonplace. But has online shopping matured to the point where people don’t blink at dropping a $20,000 half-carat diamond into an online shopping basket and proceeding to checkout?

De Beers Diamond Jewellers, Inc. is banking that the answer is yes. And given the success of online-only jeweler Blue Nile, they might be right.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118546553732879024.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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