• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, September 6, 2023

Brilliant Earth keeps pushing beyond its digital roots, adding three new stores in suburban malls.

That brings the company’s total stores to 37, which the San Francisco-based company says will help it introduce its sustainability-themed products to a growing consumer base.

The new locations are Roosevelt Field in New York, King of Prussia in Pennsylvania, and Roseville Galleria in California. And like its other showrooms, they include jewelry and bridal styles for same-day purchase, made-to-order items and one-on-one appointments with jewelry specialists.

“Expanding on the success of our existing showrooms, we are strategically moving into spaces with higher foot traffic and larger consumer footprints,” says Kathryn Money, the company’s senior vice president of merchandising and retail expansion. “These new locations will allow us to showcase the brand to more customers while continuing to meet their expectations for a seamless experience across digital and physical platforms.”

Brilliant Earth’s ongoing expansion comes at a rough time for many jewelry retailers and, more generally, for mall-based stores.

In its most recent quarterly results, Brilliant Earth said it had scratched out a 1.3% gain in its second-quarter sales, with revenue reaching $110.2 million. But net income fell to $1.3 million, down sharply from $3.8 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Rival Signet, the world’s largest jewelry retailer, is also paddling through choppy waters. Last week, Signet said its second-quarter sales dropped 8.1% to $1.6 billion.

Signet, which owns brick-and-mortar chains such as Zales, Kay Jewelers and Jared, and digital brands Blue Nile and Diamonds Direct, says it expects full-year sales of between $7.1 billion and $7.3 billion.

Signet “continues to expect annual U.S. Jewelry industry revenues to be down more than the company’s initial expectations of mid-single digits, driven by the impacts of macroeconomic factors on consumer spending.”

And the industry is still grappling with fewer engagements, linked to COVID-driven changes in the dating world; bridal purchases account for about half of the company’s sales.

But Signet sees improving trends ahead, expecting the number of engagements to recover “later in fiscal 2024 and further rebound over the next three years.”