July 15, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team
The recently published Top 500 Guide by Internet Retailer ranked Blue Nile and Bidz as the leaders in sales among online jewelry retailers. According to the list, Seattle based Blue Nile generated $295.3 million in sales in 2008, ranking them 56th on Internet Retailer’s Top 500 list. The second highest-ranking seller on the list in the jewelry category was Bidz.com, which ranked 71st with $207.4 million in sales in 2008. Online jewelry sales might be on the uptick as early today Citigroup raised its rating on the Blue Nile stock from Hold to Buy. This is a positive sign to see since so many companies have been struggling with the downturn in the economy over the past year.
The two companies have very different strategies with Bidz focusing on offering a wide array of jewelry from a variety of companies and Blue Nile focusing on their own line of jewelry similar to that of Tiffany as well as sales of polished diamonds. Selling jewelry online has a variety of key benefits in comparison to selling from a brick and mortar storefront. Offering a wide selection of product, minimal operating costs, and no need to stress about a jewelry being stolen by someone coming into your store are all reasons why it pays to sell jewelry online. If you make your own jewelry and are looking to sell online you might start off small with a hand craft site like Etsy. If you want to take it to the next level or sell other companies’ jewelry online you should create your own ecommerce store and shopping cart experience.
Scott is an avid fan of all things ecommerce. His claim to fame is that he "puts the Zip in ZippyCart." He considers himself the world-wide number one reader of TechCrunch, C|Net, and The Ecommerce Times. Scott has worked in the SEO industry for many years, but found himself always shifting his focus to review sites and ecommerce blogs. When we decided to start the ZippyCart Ecommerce news, Scott was an obvious fit. He handles most of our OpEds as he is a very opinionated guy. Scott is also our Twitter guy, so don't hesitate to send him a tweet if you see him online.
