Blue Nile: A Multifaceted E-commerce Experience

Creative Agency: CRP
Structural Designer: Meredith Bruner
Creative Director: Cole Johnston
Designers: Kerry Franz, Natalie Deese
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Blue Nile
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Packaging Contents: Jewelry
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Cardboard, Plastic, Specialty Paper, Ribbon, Fabric
Printing Process: Screen Printing, Flexography, Foil Stamping

Seattle based Blue Nile is the world’s leading online diamond jeweler. The company offers thousands of independently graded diamonds and designer jewelry. Offering intuitive software and free, secure shipping, their corporate philosophy is to make the process of buying diamonds as simple as possible.

Faced with an increasingly competitive market, Blue Nile contacted CRP to elevate their ecommerce packaging to reflect their brand values: sophisticated and solid; high end but not haughty. The challenge also required that each component should work together seamlessly with minimal material waste and shipping costs. In response to these requirements, CRP developed a sophisticated, flexible ecommerce package. Our solution fit all of their materials snugly in a minimalistic, yet premium box, featuring custom materials and finishes throughout. Furthermore, in light of damage risks during shipping, CRP’s structural design team crafted a subtle mechanism inside the box to keep the jewelry in place during transit.

The resulting package design presents a unique, elevated unboxing experience for the end-user – both from the perspective of the buyer and the recipient.

What’s Unique?
Blue Nile’s new e-commerce packaging offers customers an unboxing experience worthy of the beautiful product inside. The online diamond jeweler partnered with Seattle agency CRP to upgrade their plain cardboard box program to a fully custom designed experience that features specialty papers, a custom sized ring box and jewelry pouch, and custom designed box with a built-in platform for marketing and certification collateral. All items store flat and fit within strict DIM weight requirements, to allow for maximum operational and logistics efficiency.