Signet's James Allen opens experiential store in Georgetown, Washington D.C.

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Dec 11, 2018

Online diamond and bridal jewelry retailer James Allen has opened its first brick-and-mortar experiential retail location in Washington D.C.'s Georgetown.

The new physical space at 3109 M Street NW offers customers virtual reality headsets to provide information on James Allen's "4cs" (cut, color, clarity and carat weight), as well as a ring try-on photo booth to upload pictures of potential purchases to their social media channels, and a self-service diamond display table featuring an array of the retailer's popular rings. Inside, there's even a coffee bar with tablets for browsing and grading diamond quality online.

Building on an omnichannel strategy focused on fusing brick-and-mortar with online, the store employs customer service reps who continue to help shoppers online after they leave the store. 

James Allen was acquired by diamond jewelry retailer Signet in September of 2017. This most recent physical expansion comes after it gave a noteworthy boost to its parent company in Q3 of 2019.

During the period, Signet saw a rise in same-store sales of 1.6 percent, while James Allen sales totaled $52.5 million and overall e-commerce sales brought in $125 million, up 54.9% from the prior-year period.

The new store's location, populated by stores like Rag & Bone, Alice and Olivia and Madewell, is set to gain the brand in-person experience with a younger consumer audience, exposure that rival diamond brands like De Beers' Lightbox are also doing with similar physical-meets-online experiences. 

Currently, James Allen offers over 200,000 certified loose diamonds, as well as hundreds of of customisable ring styles, on its online platform.