As part of an effort to “level the retail diamond playing field” and give brick-and-mortar retailers a tool that will enable them to compete with online diamond retailers, Ben Bridge will place in their stores kiosks that allows customers to remotely search the inventories of both the store and the supplier.

The kiosk utilizes diamond software developer eDiamondselect’s latest version of its software WebEmbed.

The software creates an “online diamond bourse” of suppliers’ stones that can be made available to jewelry store customers at the time of sale. It runs on a WebEmbed system that can be integrated into the retailer’s website.

According to eDiamondselect, the system helps diamond retailers to capture millions of dollars in sales and profits otherwise lost to Internet sellers.

Ben Bridge will use the system in its corporate office in Seattle and in nearly all of its 80 retail locations.

“At least 80% of the time, if you don’t have the diamond in your inventory that the customer is looking for, you will lose that sale,” Avrille Aronson, founder and president of eDiamondselect.