Williams Sonoma Essays (Examples)

What Williams-Sonoma must do is create a more unified multichannel strategy that seeks to manage the lowest-cost sales entirely online, further reduces Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) on their income statement. If Williams-Sonoma can do this they can quickly become even more profitable. The e-commerce strategies need to concentrate on creating such a unique online customer experience that prospects and longtime customers both use the Web to purchase directly and visit stores to see the highest-end products. The retail locations don't need to stock the lowest-margin and highly commoditized products. They do however need to deliver an exceptional customer experience and also showcase the most profitable products to further accelerate demand so they can close more business.
eferences

Barsauskas, P., Sarapovas, T., & Cvilikas, a. (2008). The evaluation of e-commerce impact on business efficiency. Baltic Journal of Management, 3(1), 71-91.

Bernoff, J., & Li, C. (2008). Harnessing the power of…

Williams-Sonoma continues with its current strategies and objectives in five years, it will be facing declining sales, declining profits and may be evaluating the merits of continuing some of these brands. Basically, the company's financials have been strong and it has responded with a variety of new brands and brand extensions. However, the company's business is cyclical, and correlated with the health of the economy and in particular the housing market. Both the economy and housing market are doing well in 2003, and will continue to do well for about 3 more years. By 2008, however, the housing market will be dead, and the economy will be tanking. This will have a strongly negative effect on Williams-Sonoma. The company's current strategy is to build its share in furnishings by filling in gaps in the market, using these many brands to achieve that objective. The problem inherent in this is that…

Net income reflects an increase in interest income.
The company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WSM.

Looking at it's past history, the Williams Sonoma Group does not appear to have suffered from the 'sophomore slump" so common to many other stores which have attained success and a certain market share. Management continues to use consumer research to refine the business in at attempt to keep the growth of the company on an even keel. It should be noted that while the company saw 13% total growth in retail net revenue in the first quarter of 2005, the individual brand performance does appear to be mixed. Williams Sonoma itself saw sales decline by 0.5% while Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids grew by 6.1% and 10% respectively (Simpson, 2005). Financial analysts seem to feel that an increase in inventory seen with the company is not…

Crate & Barrel, in contrast, focuses more on furniture, with an even greater emphasis on Internet sales. estoration Hardware because of the fact it sells even less necessary and kitschier items than Williams-Sonoma, stresses the design appeal of its stores. Pier 1 Imports and the Bombay Company likewise emphasizes the style conveyed by their stores to a greater extent than either Williams-Sonoma or Crate & Barrel, and have a more distinct design 'flair.' The Bombay Company also has an outlet presence, to suit the needs of more price-conscious shoppers.
While estoration Hardware may draw extensive foot traffic, the fact that consumers are more careful about what they are spending on their homes, and how they spend in general, given the shaky economy, suggests that having a well-loved store does not necessarily translate into retailing success in terms of dollar figures. Smaller companies such as the Door Store, olling Pin Kitchen…

Williams-Sonoma continues with its present strategies and objectives, where will they be in 5 years?
In the next five years, Williams-Sonoma will make an impact on society as they are currently. One has to note that they will have become a multinational corporation (MNE). This is because they are continuously trying to find ways in which to grow, and their strategy will make this possible due to them having a website, catalog and so forth. Since they are now reaching out to the home, they are able to reach more people, especially because of using the World Wide Web to get as many customers as needed in order to gain revenue during this process (Pearson, 2010).

They are also reaching out to teens by having a website and a catalog available for them as well. This will make hype from that particular age group, especially since they will hear of…

Global Gadgets
e're going to get the whole "stating the obvious" out of the way. The company has ten retail stores, so obviously there is room to grow through geographic expansion even in a down market. e comprise an insignificant portion of the market share in this business, so to worry about fractions of percentages is almost silly. The focus of this report is going to be trying to figure out what the firm is doing wrong and how we can address those problems. The broad-based stuff is not really relevant to a small business because we're not in a position to be a national player.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP in Q3 of 2011 grew at 1.8%, compared with growth in Q2 of 1.3%. e don't know Q4 yet, but we did not have a stellar holiday season regardless. Because we sell general consumer products, we…

The CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., Sharon L. Patrick, issued a press release in October: "Despite the losses in the quarter, we continue to benefit from strong consumer support for our products, which offer that unique blend of 'Martha Stewart' brand attributes - inspirational 'how-to' ideas translated into products that stand for quality, style, usefulness and affordability," Patrick reported.

During the 3rd Quarter of 2004, Stewart's company purchased "Body and Soul" magazine, and Patrick also announced that Stewart will launch a new television show; and Mark Burnett Productions will "develop and produce a primetime network television series" set to launch in the fall of 2005 (Burnett is the producer of "Survivor").

Current assets for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., as of Sept. 30, 2004, were $179,298. Current Liabilities for the same period, $61,815. That is a plus $117,483.

For the year ending 2003, "net cash provided by (used…

His firms' methodology concentrates on tracking shoppers throughout stores and videotaping their behavior, then analyzing it in the context of displays, traffic routing strategies and the use of signage in the stores. As a result of this methodology, the company Envirosell captures 50,000 hours of video each year. His firms' analysis shows that the front of stores is often used as a decompression zone, and that Americans tend to turn right when they walk into a store. As is the case with auto dealerships' service centers, the most crucial time to meet a customer is when they first enter the dealership or store. Mr. Underhill's analysis supports this fact with his firm stating that the first minute a customer enters the store is the most important in getting them to purchase. he challenges that Mr. Underhill highlights for retailers are to control the flow of traffic through their stores and…

The marketing channel of distribution that C&C is part of is formed of the growers, Calyx & Corolla and Federal Express. Let's describe the role each plays in the distribution process.

The growers were located generally in California, Florida and Hawaii and ranged net sales from under $1 million to $100 million. They worked only with C&C, as the contracts specified that they were not allowed to supply any other mail order retailers. As the growers provided the flowers, C&C provided the shipping boxes that were needed, with cards, labels, vases, etc. basically anything that was needed to ensure the concept of gift flowers.

The coordination between C&C and its suppliers was essential. Indeed, demand forecasts were generally sent to the growers in order to ensure that the company would be able to cover any request in the future. The account manager provided from C&C to each grower would ensure…

OXO Marketing
SOT analysis. Conduct a very brief SOT analysis of the internal and external environments affecting the kitchen gadget industry. Be sure to summarize your findings. There is a SOT worksheet in the Marketing Toolbox under How to Prepare a Case Analysis that you might find helpful.

The kitchen gadget industry continues to experience slow growth relative to the higher growth markets of intelligent home electronics and automated kitchen appliances. ith a relatively low growth rate of 5% or less annually in sales, the kitchen gadget industry continues to rely on the ingenuity and innovation of new products (Swisher, et.al.). As a result the market for gadgets tends to become commod8ity-like where pricing and availability becomes the two most common approaches to differentiating products as they rapidly mature over time (Consumer Reports, 36, 37). Manufacturers serving this market rely on a steady stream of new product innovation to continually…

E-Commerce on etail Trade 20/09/2015
E-commerce has gone on to alter the way retail was done for centuries. Many facets of retail trade have been changed. The influence of e-commerce is undeniable and unreversable especially on retail trade. However there is much scope for further advancement of e-commerce into the retail industry. In this paper we will look into the aspects of e-commerce that have influenced retail trade. We will also look into the factors of e-commerce that affect the cost and productivity in retail industry and the impact that e-commerce has left and the factors of e-commerce that impact the cost structure in the retail industry.

Both primary and secondary data collection methods were employed for the research. Analysis of primary and secondary data was done to arrive at a result in the research and the research used and paid equal importance to secondary and primary data and their…

As such, the original construction for the building was completed between 1911 and 1913, after which point the factory underwent significant reconstruction resulting in an expansion that was largely different than its original design. The construction effort was largely financed by enscheidt, who worked in conjunction with foreign investors raise the necessary funding. The building's foundation was achieved by mixing compressed concrete and pebble dashing. While the majority of the rising structure was erected with brick, the floors were laid down with reinforced wood planks. The ceilings were constructed with a formwork shell (Gotz 138).
The glass windows that the Fagus Factory is noted for were erected upon steel frames and cover the building's entire exterior. What is of interest about this fact is that the corners of the building were constructed without supports, in much the same way that the Turbine factory was (Jaeggi 43-44). The glass was placed…

New-found competitiveness for Small- to Medium-Sized Companies

The outlook for smaller companies is much stronger today than it was at Amazon's founding. That's because several of the advantages enjoyed at the time by Amazon have been commoditized or made easier and less expensive to implement.

As the number of users has climbed since 1995, smaller businesses can now take a market-maturing step and segment their customers in an ever-finer fashion (Rangan 1992). While no one can compete with Amazon on sheer number of SKU's, specialist suppliers can seek customers "at the fringe," and develop expertise in esoteric areas in which Amazon or other mass-market retailers cannot offer the same focus or expertise.

The ability to go after smaller niche markets has been augmented by recent changes in the Web -- both in terms of finding customers and completing transactions. This is the so-called "long tail," which means that, while most…

Family Assessment
The assessment of my family is presented here for the academic purposes. The family comprises of six members that are working at different positions and live in personal home. Each member of family is educated. Based on questionnaire filled by all the family members, the summary is composed that will give an insight about the health of family.

Summary of each functional health pattern for family

The health perception-health function of the family suggests that it has an average health status. The health is not poor and the members are less vulnerable to severe health issues like diabetes and allergies yet there is a mild risk of getting cold and fever since there is low temperature at night and cool breezes during the morning. The family is suggested to have regular checkups and to take vitamins. Nutritional Metabolic Pattern of family shows that it has a healthy diet…

Sociology of California
Department of Finance reported that California had 532,000 more people at the end of 2003 (Fulton 2004) than at the start of the said year. Nothing was new about population increase in the state since the Great Depression and World War II, during which the population added half a million people every year, growing from 6 to 40 million today. There are no indications that the increase would be halted or altered.

ut the noticeable changes have been in the locations and the way California's people live. Some go back to the old suburban style, while the rest of the trend shows California as continuing to grow into an urban society (Fulton). The ay area's nine counties account for less than half (3.3%) of the entire state's average growth at 6.7% and places like Contra Costa and Sonoma counties have chosen the suburban style of growth. In…

To some, that suggests that college is a more viable alternative for many of those who would otherwise have sought jobs in the manufacturing sector previously.
However, there are at least two reasons that such a conclusion may be invalid. First, while many manufacturing jobs have disappeared, many other types of technical jobs opportunities have emerged from numerous new technologies (Klein, 2012). Many of them require vocational degrees and certifications but no college degrees. For many people without specific interests in vocational applications of any college degrees being considered, training programs for these types of jobs is much less expensive, quicker, and more likely to lead to satisfying employment options than a college diploma in a random academic area or one of great intellectual value but few employment prospects outside of academia (Klein, 2012).

Second, vocational training, in general, has changed significantly in the last several decades. Specifically, whereas vocational…