Jewelry retailer Ross-Simons, of Cranston, is pushing deeper into cyberspace today, launching a diamonds-only Web site to complement its other sales operations.

The liftoff comes nearly a decade after the Rhode Island company started its original Internet site, www.ross-simons.com. Ross-Simons hopes to profit from consumers' increasing comfort with buying expensive goods on the Internet.

``Diamonds'' is among the top search terms on the Web, according to a company spokesman.

``The category is a perfect environment for [Ross-Simons],'' said Dante Bellini, an executive vice president with RDW Group Inc., which is handling advertising for the Web site rollout.

The spade work for the latest effort was really done by Ross-Simons in the late 1990s.

The company learned early on that its long history in storefronts and its catalog-sales expertise would help it find customers on the Internet.

Ross-Simons started selling online in 1997.

Darrell Ross, Ross-Simons' president, is traveling in Europe this week and couldn't be reached for comment on the retailer's latest push on the Web.

In a 2000 interview with The Providence Journal, Ross said his company ``can sell diamond necklaces for $10,000'' online, or by mail, because it has a solid-gold reputation.

``It takes a great leap of faith for a customer to buy from a company they've never heard of,'' he said at the time.

Trust, Ross said, is one of the ``invisible barriers to entry'' in the jewelry businesses.

The company began advertising in magazines in the mid-'70s and published its first catalog in 1981.

Ross looked at the Internet as a more efficient way to sell direct.

``We got into it as much defensively as offensively,'' he said in 2000.

The company now sells jewelry, gifts and collectibles in its 14 stores, on the Web and through mailing 60 million catalogs annually to people around the country.

Setting up a Web site exclusively for diamond sales is another way to battle competitors, Bellini said.

Americans' comfort level with Web shopping extends to such pricey -- and hard to gauge -- products as diamonds, he said.

``The Web is where the business is going,'' Bellini said.

Companies such as Diamonds.com and Blue Nile Inc. make their livings off Web-savvy, 25- to 34-year-old males willing to shell out thousands for an engagement ring and single women looking to treat themselves to a sparkling accessory.

Blue Nile (NILE:NASDAQ) had sales of $203.2 million in 2005.

``This is going head to head with Blue Nile,'' Bellini said. ``We might be David taking on Goliath.''

Controlled by a private company, Ross-Simons doesn't disclose sales figures.

Regardless, Ross-Simons sees its five-plus decades of retail experience as an advantage over Blue Nile and other retail chains selling on the Internet.

``Bricks and mortar can be an advantage,'' Bellini said. ``Bricks and mortar will never go away. There are people who need to see, touch or smell the product.''

For those who don't see what they want when they press a nose up to a Ross-Simons display case, company stores will have Internet kiosks where customers can order through a Ross-Simons Web site.

The company will promote its new site in its catalogs and through an advertising campaign that will roll out soon in select markets:

www.ross-simons.com/diamonds

www.ross-simons.com

(Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Blue Nile's sales.)

pgrimald@projo.com / (401) 277-7356