Blue Nile Starting to Sparkle: CEO
Blue Nile's investments in diamonds are starting to pay off as the online jewelry retailer sees a return to growth and forecasts a record 2012, CEO Harvey Kanter, told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Monday.
"We had a 22 percent growth rate in customer acquisition on top of our 31 percent growth rate in diamond and engagements," the Blue Nile
executive said.
The Christmas season will also be crucial in gaining new customers, Kanter said. The company is giving away $100,000 in diamonds to Facebook users.
(Read More: Gift Ideas for Everyone on Your List.)
"If you are a Facebook fan on Blue Nile, you can register each and every day for a gift," he said. "Everyone that registers will actually win an opportunity to have a great value."
Kanter also doesn't worry about new competitors. "The150,000 diamonds that we have on our site, the 20 to 40 percent price differential between traditional brick and mortar stores and what we bring to market helps to re-ignite our business success and really grow," Kanter said.
-By Justin Menza, CNBC News Writer
Questions? Comments? Email us at consumernation@cnbc.com.
*Correction: An earlier version of this story said that the CEO noted the margin on engagement rings was around 70 percent. In fact, that 70 percent number referred to the percentage of sales that come from engagement rings annually. Margins on engagement rings are actually below 20 percent.
