Tableware and Home Goods Marketing Strategy: Williams-Sonoma Investing in Web in Down Times

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Williams-Sonoma Investing in Web in Down Times

An article by Barbara Thau in HFN from June 2008 points out that while Williams-Sonoma, parent company of Pottery Barn and West Elm, is facing shrinking sales, the company is still investing in the web.

Excerpt:
"Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s net revenues decreased 4.4 percent to $781.8 million. Net earnings fell 42 percent to $10.4 million.

Direct-to-customer net revenues, which includes catalog and Internet revenues, fell 4.0 percent to $348.2 million.

Across its formats, the retailer continues to bet big on e-commerce, with site upgrades set for Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen in the third quarter."

Full article:
http://hfnmag.com/index.php?id=128&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1491&cHash=78f5ae7ef8

1) How do we deliver value?

A. We build sites that bring in new customers. New customers mainly find our clients' site via Google. This is possible because we build sites from the first sketch with Google in mind. Customers also come to our clients' sites via other websites, such as blogs. These are sales that otherwise would not exist. Once our store is found in Google, our e-commerce sites mirror what would occur in a store. Our sites market the product, and then the customer conducts the 'checkout.'

B. We also boost sales with a client's current customers.

C. We move business operations online resulting in cost savings. For
example, showing a person items online is cheaper than sending a print catalog. Furthermore, there is cost savings in that a website isn't thrown away like paper. Instead of spending $1k on a magazine ad and getting four sales leads, we spend $1k online and get the same amount of sales leads each month thereafter. A website is an investment that lives on; print ads die after the print piece is put in the trash.

D. We increase the amount of knowledge in a company, and make it easy to share product and market information. We also allow people to store and review past purchases and information.

2) Who do we deliver our services to?

Our clients
We work for national brands and distributors that sell tableware and retailers that sell home goods. We are interested in working with clients across the country. For example, some of our current clients are located in: Missouri, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York.

We seek clients that want to energize the home goods industry and work
in new ways to engage customers. One way to do this is to pursue the strategy that customer service should be the same high quality experience whether it's provided in a store or by a computer.

3) How do we deliver our services?

From our office in the East Village of Manhattan, we provide the services by phone, e-mail, and in person. We send business ideas and design to clients for review by e-mail. Once approved, we build the idea on the client's website.
We saves clients money by allowing the client to not have full time IT employees, nor have people physically working on site. The payment structure is freelance, so the client has no exposure besides the agreed upon costs to build and maintain the site (a.k.a. vacation, stock options, etc.).

Tableware and Home Goods Marketing Strategy

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Williams-Sonoma Investing in Web in Down Times

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Jason Solarek - Marketing and Communications Advisor

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1) How do we deliver value?

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3) How do we deliver our services?

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