How Signet Plans to Integrate the Clear Cut

By Rob Bates | June 03, 2026

Signet Jewelers plans to use the Clear Cut’s technology at Blue Nile as well as its other stores, chief financial and operating officer Joan Hilson tells JCK.

“Our goal is to leverage this acquisition for our other banners,” she says. “We think the most likely candidates would be Jared and Diamonds Direct.”

Signet announced it was buying the New York City-based diamond jewelry brand last week. The transaction closed on Monday. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Hilson says that Signet was particularly interested in the Clear Cut’s “innovative and forward-thinking” customization tools, which she says “would have taken us some time to build.”

Olivia Landau, the Clear Cut’s cofounder and president, tells JCK that its software “matches customers with a graduate gemologist. They schedule a phone call, explaining their preferences, price point, etc.

“And then we get them set up in their own portal, where they have direct communication with their gemologist. We curate a selection of loose diamonds specifically for the client’s preferences. From there, they work together to narrow down their diamond and create a custom one-of-a-kind setting for the stone.”

Hilson says Signet was also impressed by Landau’s “modern approach to social communications,” where she’s made her name as an outspoken advocate of natural diamonds (and frequent critic of lab-grown diamonds).

The Clear Cut has “a strong ability to connect with a younger, digitally native luxury consumer,” Hilson says. “They can reintroduce Blue Nile to a new audience and support long-term brand relevance on social platforms that we don’t really engage in fully today.”

Kyle Simon, the Clear Cut’s cofounder and chief operating officer (as well as Landau’s husband), says that “you won’t see our voice shrink. I think you will see it bigger than it’s ever been. The natural diamond industry needs to do more to tell its story.”

As far as Blue Nile’s network of 20-odd mini-showrooms, Hilson says that “Kyle and Olivia will be training the showroom jewelry consultants to leverage the tools that we are acquiring.”

The stores will also be remodeled. “We are working on the creative and design for them as we’re repositioning the brand,” Hilson says. “More to come on that, but we’re excited about building that experience in-store as well.”

The Clear Cut acquisition is part of Signet’s strategy to move Blue Nile upscale. One of the things that made the Clear Cut attractive is its average order is $30,000, Hilson says.

And while Blue Nile used to be known as an aggressive discounter, that doesn’t fit with its new upscale image, Hilson explains.

“We need to establish the trust, the confidence, the curation, and the experience that a luxury customer would expect,” she adds. “So that wouldn’t [work] for a highly promotional business.”

Blue Nile will also deemphasize the now ubiquitous diamond “grids” it once popularized.

“What we’re finding is that the customer doesn’t want as much choice as the Blue Nile website today offers,” Hilson says. “They would prefer a curated assortment with the confidence that we’ve searched the diamonds in the world to bring them unique diamonds, based on their input to us.”

While the new Blue Nile will be “natural diamond leading,” it will also house James Allen, the former stand-alone site that was a heavy lab-grown seller. Blue Nile’s James Allen section will offer a proprietary collection that will include some lab-grown stones.

The revamped Blue Nile will be launched in the fall.

Top: Kyle Simon and Olivia Landau, the husband-and-wife team who founded the Clear Cut (photo courtesy of Signet Jewelers)