Williams Sonoma
Essays

Williams-Sonoma is a lifestyle brand that has made extensive use of consumer segmentation to drive sales. The Internet has opened up new possibilities to further refine its strategy. Competitor strategies like Crate & Barrel are also discussed.

¶ … Williams-Sonoma continues with its present strategies and objectives, where will they be in 5 years?

This paper is about a Williams Sonoma case, set in 2003. The topics covered are given the current strategy where will the company be in five years. Also, there is a discussion about what the company should do strategically, and its competitors, and about the role of the Internet in strategy.

During the timeframe of the case study, Williams-Sonoma is creating a multi-channel based business model that lacks the level of integration between online and brock-and-mortar stores to scale profitably. While the sales are increasing quickly for Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and outlet stores, there is little evidence of online buying behavior driving in-store purchases. Worse yet, there is no indication that the high-end stores in their business are enjoying greater sales as a result of their e-comemrce sites. Without a concerted strategy to drive greater upsell and across channels, Williams-Sonoma will eventually end up being two or more companies. This is exactly why the industry they compete in is also following this growth trajectory; the attempts to focus on several segments at the same time is diluting focus on the selling cycle of customers. Retailers need to realize that the more effectively they manage the selling process both on- and offline as a single, unified strategy, the more profitable over the long-term they will be (King, Sen, Xia, 2004). The case indicates that there are fundamental shifts in how customers are choosing to shop online. The prevalence of social media is a case in point. As customers are increasingly relying on the most trusted sources of information, often their personal networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networking sites, to drive their purchasing (Bernoff, J., & Li, 2008). Williams-Sonoma is not taking into account the communitization of their customer base, but rather assuming no interaction between online and offline customers. This is going to drive the company to operate as several different businesses over time. By better managing the entire purchasing process across both online and offline channels, Williams-Sonoma will gain a significant competitive advantage in the market. Today they are encouraging a bifurcated, fragmented view of their channels. By aligning online and offline strategies to a common objective or goal, the company will be able to better manage costs and predict revenue and profits more effectively. In devising and managing a multichannel strategy that involves online shopping and the potential for offline purchasing, retailers are discovering that the decision processes consumers use are changing quickly and significantly in favor of the Web as a product comparison tool (Reynolds, 2002). Williams-Sonoma will be able to unify their online and offline strategies through the more effective use of social media as well, creating a unique and highly differentiated customer experience in the process (Bernoff, J., & Li, 2008). In five years if these changes are made Williams-Sonoma will be able to challenge Amazon and other larger and more diverse competitors with a highly effective, unified e-commerce strategy that interlinks directly to their retail outlets. If they do nothing they will end up just as fragmented as the market they are competing in today, forced to eventually spin off specific retail divisions or store chains that no longer make sense for how far customers have changed in their decision-making and purchasing criteria. The bottom line is that how, where and who customers trust for information is changing much more rapidly than the Williams-Sonoma existing channel architecture and e-commerce strategies can allow for.

This paper is about the housewares industry. Written as PowerPoint slide notes (there is an accompanying presentation), the paper covers the size of the industry, the competitors, the retail channels and the target market. It is written from the perspective of an existing firm that is considering entering this market. Thus, the paper takes the form of an industry overview.

SWOT analysis. Conduct a very brief SWOT analysis of the internal and external environments affecting the kitchen gadget industry. Be sure to summarize your findings. There is a SWOT worksheet in the Marketing Toolbox…

The addition of a Williams Sonoma chain of stores to any mall is generally considered to be a win-win situation, no matter what the local demographic. Williams-Sonoma is the premier specialty retailer of home furnishing…