Blue nile VS. James allen who is the best?
Blue Nile and James Allen Jewelers started almost adjacent to each other, but today, both are different poles in their popularity and success. With the recent Forbes analysis claiming Blue Nile as the best and James Allen as the second best diamond geezer in the market, it is necessary to know what are the deciding factors that distinguish each.
Founded
Blue Nile
Known for high quality engagement rings since almost two decades, Blue Nile was founded in 1999 with its headquarters in Seattle. The company is known for providing rarest of the rare diamonds on its online website. The company is also known for being the best and oldest online retailer in the diamond industry.
James Allen
Founded a year earlier than Blue Nile, James Allen nuptial jewelry was found in 1998 by the renowned James Allen Schultz. Nevertheless, the brand became renowned as James Allen, a celebrated jeweler only since 2005. With a slower, yet powerful success story, James Allen is the second best diamond geezer online.
Online/ Traditional
Blue Nile
Run online, Blue Nile is the most sought after wedding jeweler online at present. With one brick and mortar stores, Blue Nile has a drastically growing customer base that is virtual and physical shoppers. Blue Nile jewelers run the business both traditionally and online.
James Allen
James Allen also has a virtual jewelry website than a traditional shop. A well-crafted website with endless rocks in its inventory, James Allen has a striking display of every type of diamond in the world!
Slogan
Blue Nile
A celebrated diamond jeweler at present, Blue Nile has a amiable and expert approach towards rocks and customers. The motto of Blue Nile Jewelers is- Be Brilliant! It denotes the epitome of the fiery brilliance within high quality diamonds.
James Allen
With 100% trustworthy and risk-free shopping experience, James Allen has the penultimate diamond characteristics as its tagline-The Source of Brilliance. This denotes that James Allen diamonds are the root or source of world’s brilliant most diamonds!
Jewelry types
Blue Nile
The online store provides classic shaped diamonds like round as well as fancy shapes like heart and signature shapes like Asscher, Princess and Emerald. The website also offers options on building your own engagement ring as well.
The jeweler also has many jewelry types like
- Earrings- Diamond, Pearl, Gold, Silver, Platinum;
- Rings- Engagement, Gemstone, Wedding;
- Bracelets- Gemstone, Diamond, Pearl, Silver and Platinum.
- Necklaces- Pearl, Silver, Platinum, Diamond and Gemstone.
James Allen
For engagement rings, James Allen provides customizing your own rings as well as endless collections to buy from Three Stone, Tension, Vintage, Halo, Unique, Pave, Channel-Set, Solitaire and Side-stone rings.
The jeweler also has many jewelry types online such as
- Necklaces and Pendants- Diamond and Mille Coeurs Gemstone pendants;
- Bracelets- Diamond and Mille Coeurs Gemstone Bracelets;
- Rings- Two-stone, Royal Halo, Mille Coeurs Gemstone Rings;
- Earrings and Studs- Diamond and Mille Coeurs Gemstone Earrings;
Number of Locations of the store
Blue Nile
The company has one physical store. The store is located at 630 Old Country Rd #1101b, Garden City, NY 11530, USA. It is most popular as an online jeweler with most of its 2-decade long products displayed on the website, individually and detailed.
James Allen
The company has no physical stores and offers online diamond buying experience that is trustworthy and protected. All of its products are displayed on screen and for further clarifications, approach the customer care directly. James Allen Jewelry is also a noted jewelry in most renowned physical stores.
Variety
Blue Nile
The perfect place to shop for diamonds, Blue Nile offers endless varieties of products in the latest style and designs for the trendy bride. The website offers pre-set engagement rings with diamonds in various shapes of round to marquise, emerald and radiant shapes. The company is known for offering diamonds that are the trademarks of the brand.
Blue Nile Jewelers has the biggest collection of diamonds online. It also offers building your own ring with the metal, centrestone, design and specs that you desire!
James Allen
With endless varieties of precious rocks and ornaments, James Allen boasts 100,000 variety of jewelry on its online database. With a high quality diamond consultation and expert advice provided along with the purchases, designing your own ring is easy on James Allen too. The website offers exclusive ring designs such as Classic Wedding Rings, Carved Rings, Alternative-metal Rings, Stockable Rings and Anniversary as well as Eternity Rings.
Prices
Blue Nile
Offering affordable to luxury jewelry at your fingertips, Blue Nile diamond prices range from $200- $9,999,000. You can select your diamond, the setting, the metal, shape, cut and color to determine your own cumulative bill amount.
James Allen
Slightly pricier than Blue Nile, James Allen Jewelry price starts at $279 and goes up to $2,803,196, depending on your preferences and requirements. You can select your diamond and then proceed onto add the other preferences on the same, to determine the variable cost.
Photos quality
Blue Nile
The rings and jewelry displayed on Blue Nile are with excellent quality photos with clear detail. All the individual pieces are accompanied with a 3600 HD Video, Side shots, Close-up and ring-on-Finger shots. Every product is displayed with a minimum of 6 photos that can be zoomed in or enlarged.
James Allen
The rings and jewelry showed on James Allen also provides with a 3600 HD Video, which is also adjustable to be moved and paused or looped at any juncture of the video to get a lucid close-up. The high quality video is of high-resolution and is the only tool offered unlike ASET pictures on other diamond sellers’ to view the product better. There are no pictures to see how the jewelry looks on the finger, side shots or close-ups.
Videos
Blue Nile
The leading diamond jeweler with international diamond sales, Blue Nile has an exemplary focus on delivering perfect and high quality information about the product for the customer to review. Every product on the website is provided with a high definition video of the product rotating 3600 with clarity and contrast.
James Allen
James Allen jewelers are known as the second best in the country for quality diamond purchases. Providing high-end detailing and customer support, James Allen provides nothing but a continuously rotating 3600 High-Definition clip of the ring.
Extra topics
Blue Nile
It is not with scrap that Blue Nile is the best diamond geezer at present. In fact, the educational topics on Blue Nile are flawless and diverse.
The brief of the range of topics explored on Blue Nile are
- Precious Metal Education
- Signature Models Education
- Diamond Education
- Pearls Education
- Gemstone Education
- Engagement Ring Guides
- Wedding Ring Guides
- Ring Sizers Guide
- Necklace Jewelry Guide
- Earring Jewelry Guide
James Allen
James Allen is known as the expert on jewelry advice.
The official website provides numerous posts on Jewelry Education such as
- Loose Diamonds
- Engagement Rings
- Gemstones
- Fine Jewelry
- Wedding Rings
James Allen Blog or JA Blog is an exclusive collection of various informative and creative nuptial blogs on the categories, Engagement Rings, Love, Proposal, Trending Rings, Wedding and What’s New.
Contact methods
Blue Nile
With feedback and questions welcome at Blue Nile, there are multiple ways to contact Blue Nile.
You can either opt for a
- Live Chat is available- Monday to Friday from 9AM until Midnight ET and on Weekends
from 11AM to Midnight ET. - Diamond Questions- [email protected]
- Jewelry Questions- [email protected]
- Policy Questions- [email protected]
- Media Questions- [email protected]
- Promotional Questions- [email protected]
- 24×7 Phone Contact- 1 800-242-2728
James Allen
The customer service department at James Allen is available 24×7 for answering and clarifying the questions and doubts of their customers. Some methods of contact are
- Live chat- Online
- Phone- USA: 877 826 9866 and Outside USA: +1 301 631 1414
- Email contact Form- Online on the Contact Us Page.
Reply duration
Blue Nile
The website Contact Us provides no Email Contact Form, but email addresses of 5 departments to contact. We are pleased to note that Blue Nile responded to our reply form within 48 hours of sending the inquiry. Nevertheless, there are one too many displeased customers (verified purchases) online who emphasize that the customer care responds erratically and negligibly.
James Allen
The website Contact Us page also provides an Email Contact Form, which can be used to directly talk to the customer care department of James Allen regarding any order or inquiry about a new one. We are pleased to state that James Allen Customer Reps responded diligently to us within 24 hours. The staff was very informative and helpful with our enquiries.
Auto spam
Blue Nile
Yes Blue Nile has auto spam enabled on its website that is ranked 7th. The website has an Alexa Rank of 13523 and a Child Safe website. Privacy and safety on the site is high as well for bluenile.com.
James Allen
Yes, James Allen has auto spam activated on its website that is ranked 5th. James Allen official website has an Alexa Rank of 38530, yet it has a slight lesser child safety and privacy available as well.
Customer Care
Blue Nile
Blue Nile provides multiple contacts and excellent customer services. However, it is true that online, you can find many customers who are appalled by the lack of customer care. The skilled customer reps are often found to be the blame for many negative reviews from customers.
James Allen
James Allen, on the other hand has a helpful, polite and genuine customer care services. No wonder is James Allen the industry lead, but the best aspect of JA’s exceptional customer care is its professional approach. The customer care reps that interacted with us were very intelligent as well as experts too!
User Friendly
Blue Nile
A traditional yet an eye-catchy design that has its hallmark blue in the backdrop. The website provides uniquely valuable information on buying guides for jewelry enthusiasts. The easy to navigate site also comes with a technical language exclusively made from diamond experts. Blue Nile is the ultimate place to buy high quality and trustworthy diamonds.
James Allen
We loved the look and interface of the James Allen official page. It brews the shopping mood simultaneously providing easy to navigate options to educated yourself on diamond buying, in an easy to read language. The website is colorful with striking Instagram Pics, DIY Diamond customization with amazing Combos!
Financing options
Blue Nile
The company has a trademark Credit Card that offers compelling options to manage your jewelry finances with ease. The highlights of the card are feasible Payments, Elimination of Annual Fee and exclusive Cardholder Membership offers. The credit card is called- Blue Nile Credit Card.
All purchases have a grace period of 25 days when purchased on Blue Nile Financing Options.
James Allen
Offering a vast range of flexible financing, the best of JA’s options are James Allen Flexible Financing. This offers two options- Deferred Interest if paid in full within 6 months or 9.90% APR with 24 monthly Installments (min purchase- $2000).
It is easy to avail the JA Flexible financing as the process is terribly fast! Within minutes of applying, the customer will receive a card with a line of credit to use anytime from thereon.
Payment methods
Blue Nile
The Blue Nile Credit Card is the ultimate payment option on Blue Nile. First, realize your credit limit on the BN Credit Card and proceed to purchase using financing or direct payments. The BN Credit Card is made with high-end design and is well-protected.
James Allen
Offering multiple and feasible payment methods like
- Bank Wire transfers- $1.5% discount
- Personal Checks and Money Order- Customers are provided with mailing instruction after confirming the order;
- Credit Card- MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Visa are the accepted cards on JA.
- JA Flexible Financing- Financing options for an EMI plan;
Shipping policy
Blue Nile
Offering transparent shipping, orders within the use are packaged in secure and insured non-descript box. Inside the elegant Blue Nile brand box encloses your precious jewelry. For gift boxing, Blue Nile provides personalized engraving as well jewelry care accessories.
The shipment can also be tracked using the notification mail, which lets you observe every stage of shipping in detail. Washington and New York shipments have an attached tax while Canada, EU and other counties should adhere to the custom fees.
James Allen
A celebrated diamond geezer, James Allen provides free shipping on all its orders, independent of the billing amount. The shipments are carried out via FedEX Priority Mail and post 4 days from confirming payment. All shipments require the digital signature of the addressee for smooth delivery.
The website carries out shipments to U.S, Canada as well as international destinations.
Refund policy
Blue Nile
The website offers a 100% refund on the items with $0 restocking fee, provided the customer provides the item sans any damages as well as unworn. For any items that are different from the confirmed order, customers can apply for a 100% refund as well as returns within 30 days of delivery. The company also pays for return shipping charges and provide up to three times return limit for every customer.
Returns are not provided for Items Packaged without appropriate documents, Eternity Bands, Engravings, Tension Rings, Special Orders, Used or Damaged.
James Allen
JA also provides 100% refund on all items if returned within 30 days from the date of delivery. The company does not refund the shipping charges and shipments without GIA Certificate are liable for $250 fine. All returns should accompany Return Merchandize Authorization and the customer should bear the charges for return shipping and insurance.
PayPal account credits are deposited within 2 weeks of inquiry to the billed PayPal account.
Trade in policy
Blue Nile
The company offers a Lifetime Trade-in Program for diamonds that are certified by GIA and AGSL. The customer acquires a 100% of the original price to stock up for a new diamond of choice. All Blue Nile Trade-ins require the new purchase to be twice the amount of your old diamond.
Additionally, provided your original setting cannot be used for the new diamond, Blue Nile also provides a credit too. All diamonds that are set by diamond geezers other than Blue Nile must to deposited without the setting.
James Allen
James Allen also provides a 100% credit for trade-ins for the original diamond. The customer must purchase a new diamond that is 2x the original amount and the original must accompany a grading report. James Allen also remodels rings for improvising the new choice of diamond for an incremental fee.
Headquarters
Blue Nile
The specialty diamond jeweler for trustworthy purchases online, Blue Nile has its registered headquarters at Seattle, Washington, United States. Having a net income of 9.7 million USD, the website has an operating income of 14.2 Million USD.
James Allen
A celebrated virtual jeweler since 2005, James Allen has its headquarters at 6 East 45th Street, New York, NY, USA. The website has a total of 9000+ unique visitors every day with a net worth of $96,452 on the website alone.
Stock
Blue Nile
Known for the rarest diamonds available in the world, you might wonder is Blue Nile diamonds are blood diamonds. We are please to assure you that all Blue Nile diamonds undergo the Kimberley Process in addition to UN protocols to acquire their 100% Conflict-Free diamonds.
James Allen
Known as the second best by Forbes, James Allen diamonds are conflict-free and inspected many times more and deeper than the government scanners. The diamonds at James Allen are processed only after internal guidelines in addition to the UN protocols too. James Allen also provides independent cutting and polishing of the diamonds.
CEO
Blue Nile
Harvey S Kanter is the current CEO of Blue Nile Jewelers.
James Allen
Oded Edelman is the current CEO of James Allen Jewelers.
Founder
Blue Nile
Mark Vadon founded Blue Nile in 1999.
James Allen
James Allen Schultz founded James Allen Jewelers in 1998 (rose to popularity in 2005).