Episode 53: Guest Sean Kell
The Jewelry District
JCK
4.9 • 50 Ratings
🗓️ 28 September 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In This Episode
You’ll hear JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates talk to guest Sean Kell, CEO of Blue Nile. They'll discuss how Sean got into the jewelry industry, how Blue Nile has done during the pandemic, the De Beers Ten/Ten campaign, and expectations for the upcoming holiday season.
Show Notes
00:30 Rob and Victoria introduce their guest, Sean Kell, CEO of Blue Nile.
7:40 Sean explains how he got into the jewelry industry after jumping around and working in several different industries.
13:36 Blue Nile did well during the pandemic. Hear how.
17:38 Victoria asks Sean about Blue Nile’s social presence.
19:20 Sean explains the success of the De Beers Ten/Ten Campaign that Blue Nile took part in.
20:56 Sean talks about Lightbox, Brilliant Earth going public, and his holiday expectations.
Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Plugs: jckonline.com, @jckmagazine
Show Recap
Introducing Sean Kell
At the time of this recording, Victoria had just gotten back from Denver, where she'd been attending the Hard Rock Summit; she said the show was fantastic and that she promises to chat about it at a later date. Rob and Victoria then introduce their guest: Sean Kell, CEO of Blue Nile, who is calling in from just outside of Seattle. Sean says it feels like things in the jewelry industry are finally returning to normal. He also expresses his love for Blue Nile and how much he enjoys working there.
How Sean Got Into the Industry
Blue Nile has 13 showrooms, with 5 more opening later this year. Ultimately, the company plans to have 40 more showrooms across the country. Sean says Blue Nile is looking at expanding into colored stones and men’s jewelry. He then explains what attracted him to the jewelry industry in the first place: its size, and its difficulty for consumers to figure it out and how it's difficult for consumers to figure it out—he wants to change the industry to be a little more convenient or shoppers. Blue Nile originally operated solely on the web, but it has since opened brick-and-mortar stores to meet customers where they want to be met.
Blue Nile During the Pandemic
Back in 2020, Blue Nile’s showrooms were closed for a time. But since the brand was already established as an online company, it didn’t have much trouble during that transition period. Sean says Blue Nile has seen terrific growth, and it continues to enjoy that growth as the country opens back up and it opens new showrooms. Earlier in the pandemic, Blue Nile also offered virtual appointments, which it continues to do. It uses actual studios for its one-on-one sessions, and the personal jewelers have multiple cameras to provide an immersive experience, similar to one in a brick-and-mortar store.
Blue Nile’s Social Presence
Victoria asks about social media. Sean says Blue Nile has fully embraced Instagram in the United States. He also talks about social media platforms in China, which are even more important to the Chinese consumer than Instagram and Facebook are to the American shopper. While Blue Nile hasn't started doing virtual appointments on Instagram, it's working hard on its video and phone business.
De Beers and the Ten/Ten Campaign
Victoria asks about Blue Nile's teaming with De Beers and 10 independent designers in 2020 for a design collaboration called Ten/Ten. The designers created limited-edition engagement rings featuring center stones all sourced from De Beers' mines in Botswana. Sean discusses the success of that partnership. A hundred rings were created in total, and the program highlighted 10 wonderful designers—all women—and the beauty of natural diamonds in center stone engagement rings.
Lightbox and Natural Diamonds, Brilliant Earth, and the Holidays
Rob asks about Lightbox, and Sean says Blue Nile’s partnership with De Beers and Lightbox has been a good way for the company to test the waters of lab-grown diamonds. Blue Nile continues to sell only natural diamonds in its center stone engagement rings, and its customers are mainly looking for natural diamonds. Rob also mentions that one of Blue Nile’s competitors, Brilliant Earth, is going public, and Sean answers the question of whether he sees that happening for Blue Nile any time soon. Victoria asks if Blue Nile is seeing any bottlenecks in the shipping capacity for holiday sales. Sean says Blue Nile is expecting its largest holiday season.
(Photo courtesy of Sean Kell)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Jewelry District, a podcast by J.C.K. |
| 0:13.8 | Today, Rob Bates and Victoria Gamalski talk with Sean Kell, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Nile. |
| 0:30.6 | Okay. Kell, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Nile. Hey, everyone. |
| 0:31.6 | Welcome to the Jewelry District. |
| 0:33.3 | This is Victoria Gimelski, Editor-in-Chief of JCP J-CK Online.com. Call in from my home office in Los Angeles, and I'm with. Rob Bates, news director of J-C-K and J-C-K online, calling in from New York City. Hey, so how's it going, Rob? It's all right. It's almost my birthday, so I'm excited about that. |
| 0:55.0 | I'm aging. |
| 0:56.3 | Hey, you're still here. That's a good sign. Yes, I'm still here, and it's getting to fall. It's starting to feel like fall, so. Oh, that's my favorite time of year in New York. And so I just got back last night from Denver. I was at the hard rock summit, which for those of you who are listening are colored stone |
| 1:12.5 | and mineral nerds, you'll be jealous because it was... Last night from Denver, I was at the Hard Rock Summit, which, for those of you who are listening |
| 1:11.5 | are colored stone and mineral nerds, you'll be jealous because it was really a fantastic show. |
| 1:16.5 | And I even got a chance to drive up into the Rockies for like literally a minute. |
| 1:21.3 | It was so quick, but I did see some changing leaves on my way up to Estes Park. |
| 1:25.9 | And the peak to peak highway there in Colorado. It was so |
| 1:28.6 | beautiful. So I'll have to revisit that on our next taping and talk about what I saw at the |
| 1:33.9 | Hard Rock Summit. But anyway, it was a lovely little getaway, I must say. So we've got a very, |
| 1:38.6 | a very special guest, an important guest, somebody we've hoped to get on this show for some time. |
| 1:44.0 | And so I will |
| 1:45.0 | cut to the chase here and introduce him. His name, of course, is Sean Kell, chief executive of |
| 1:50.1 | Blue Nile, and we are thrilled to have him join us. I think you said, Sean, you're joining us |
| 1:54.5 | from Seattle today. Is that right? That's right, Victoria. Thanks for having me today. I'm at the Blue |
| 1:59.0 | Nile World Headquarters just outside of Seattle. Fantastic. Have you been traveling much or have you mostly been there for the last, you know, year and a half or so? Well, I've been traveling a little bit lately. In fact, I was down at the JCP show just a few weeks ago. It was terrific. That was my first opportunity to, to attend the show. It was canceled, of course, last year, and it was just a delight to get down there. It was very hot that week in Las Vegas. So that was a bit of a shock for my kind of Seattle boy. But that was a good little bit of travel. And I've been getting out to a few trips here and there. We've been opening a number of showrooms across the U.S. here at Blue Nile, and so I've been trying to get out to attend a number of those store openings and visit our teams out there. So a little bit of traveling, yeah. I mean, it must feel good. You sort of hit the ground there at Blue Nile a couple of years ago. So before, you had a little time before the pandemic hit, does it feel a little bit like things are returning to normal in the retail sense? It does. It feels great to get out and see our associates across the country. We've got |
| 2:56.2 | almost 700 employees around the world. And I love talking to our employees and our associates, |
| 3:02.1 | both in our showrooms. And we've got some support centers and a couple distribution centers as |
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