Cover Story: A Beautiful Marriage

Ritani counts upwards of 125 retail partners across the U.S. These partners not only receive a commission on every Ritani purchase that occurs in their store, but they also get exposure on every page of Ritani's website and the chance to interact with quality leads. That said, it wasn't easy getting them on board initially.

"The retailers at first looked at us as competition," Watkins admits. "We spent a lot of time working through that. I think they fully understand now that we're not the competition. We're doing everything possible to introduce and integrate their retail store experience to that consumer. When you land that first engagement ring customer, the lifetime value of that customer, especially for higher-end stores, is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"We're sharing a part of our proceeds back to that retailer, and then we almost become a lead-gen engine for them. That customer just bought a platinum engagement ring for $10,000. The very next thing any sales associate should do is show them the matching wedding band that's in the display case or start talking to them about other gifts they want to start thinking about. There's a natural flow to this process that allows them to be the trusted retailer along with Ritani in making that sale successful."

A First-Rate Website and Education
As a brand that's selling high-end merchandise online, it's imperative that Ritani's website be modern, sleek and feature rich. High-definition product images and videos, 360-degree product views, and live chat are prominent on the retailer's site. In fact, Ritani has a patent on its method for showing highly detailed diamond imagery via the web.

The company's e-commerce team has worked hard to create an online shopping experience that's comparable to the offline retail stores it works with.