Customer Experience in the Online World

NPR recently did a story on Blue Nile, an online diamond retailer, entitled Digital Bling: Diamonds For Sale Online.  Blue Nile does not have any stores, and all purchases are made online, so how do they compete with traditional diamond stores when the sensual experience of evaluating diamonds is not available online?

Four ways-

1.     A top-notch product. 

2.     Open communications, education, guidance and a liberal return policy.

3.     Operations: Blue Nile cuts the diamonds afterthey are purchased, has a low overhead and does     not pay a sales staff commission. 

4.     Price:  Due to streamlined operations the price is significantly lower than traditional stores.

Blue Nile has essentially replaced the traditional customer experience of evaluating the 4C’s in person with a trusting educational process and it seems to be working.  Blue Nile proves that the customer experience process can be changed and 100% moved into the online world even when the traditional customer experience is mostly about the senses. 

Although, I’m sure many of the consumers that purchase through Blue Nile go into other stores to evaluate the diamonds of their choice before purchasing online, so the customer experience may not be completely replaced … slightly augmented though.      

As NPR states, this will not appeal to all consumers, but the diamond market is large so even a small segment of the diamond consumers is enough to support a profitable online model.