Online retailer Blue Nile picks LI for first-ever store

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Internet diamond jewelry retailer Blue Nile will open its first-ever brick-and-mortar location next month in the Roosevelt Field mall.

The cozy 466-square-foot Blue Nile store is called a “webroom,” where customers will have the opportunity to try-on products only seen before on its website. Non-commissioned salespeople will assist customers who visit the webroom located on the mall’s main level near guest services and the H&M store.

In 2014, Blue Nile tested display cases of its jewelry in two Nordstrom stores: one in Seattle and the other at Roosevelt Field in Garden City. The company found that 91 percent of the visitors to Blue Nile’s Nordstrom counters came specifically for Blue Nile, which helped convince the company to launch its first store in Roosevelt Field.

Publicly-traded Blue Nile was founded in Seattle in 1999, when Doug Williams of traditional retailer Williams & Son Jewelers began to sell loose diamonds online.

Today, Blue Nile leads the internet jewelry pack, and is bigger than the next three largest online jewelers combined, according to Internet Retailer Magazine. The company racked up $473.5 million in sales in 2014, according to its annual report.