Blue Nile: -20% In October 2008

Here's a link to the transcript from the investor conference call. See page four for comments about variable marketing costs being ten percent of net sales ... that's the total flex that Blue Nile has in their business model --- worse than catalogers, far better than retailers.

This is where magic happens, folks. We've never truly been asked to drive e-commerce sales increases ... everything we've accomplished has been on the updraft of a channel that cannibalized other channels.

Now we get busy. Now we innovate. And we'll be much better off for going through this experience. We are going to invent truly new and effective methods for driving online sales. Really!