Williams-Sonoma Case1. I believe Williams-Sonoma is heading into the right direction with its present strategies, by bringing e-commerce to its brand. This will help bring its brand to more individuals that might otherwise not have gone into a store or know what it sells. The company is not only bringing its store online within the country but they are also going global “The internet gives Williams-Sonoma a way to target international consumers without building as many brick-and-mortar stores – part of a plan for direct sales to reach as much as 50 percent of revenue in the next five years” (Flinn, 2011). This strategy will help bring its brand to more consumers, though the problem with the store is that it offers mostly high end merchandise. Presently more consumers are more conscious with how they spend money and would rather go to an Ashleys or Ikea to furnish their homes. They also have to compete with the online retailer Amazon which often not only sells products similar but at a reduced cost. I believe they should extend their brand and have a store that offers home furnishings that are on par with what other discount store offer. This way not only will they be able to compete with the likes of Pier 1 Imports, Crate & Barrel, etc., but will also be able to compete with the Ikeas as well.
2. As I stated previously I would extend the brand into a more cost effective store where it would compete with other retailers that are similar. I understand that they have the West Elm brand though they need to expand upon this and market it more. In keeping with this trend, as CEO, I would develop more outlet store similar to the Nordstrom Racks and Neiman Marcus Last Call. These stores take items that are either from last season or very little stock of particular items and send them to these outlet type stores. By Williams-Sonoma doing this not only would they be able to sell items that might not have previously sold but help get the brand recognition to more individuals. I would also partially get rid of the catalogs. Since the new direction of Williams-Sonoma is e-commerce I would send out single page almost post card size advertisements that market the website and offer a small discount for using
2. As they are the largest retailing agency, I do believe that it is important for them to make decisions that best balance the needs of their team. As they do not want to be limited by supply and the availability of inventory the only way they can move forward is to add items into their store at a quick clip. This may be as simple as adding a couple new items at a time if necessary. One of the best ways that I am seeing our team do this is through a promotion where we offer a limited number of orders per day with orders starting at $1 over a six month term. The new model has also introduced many new features for customers. One of my reasons for looking into this are the brand name changes. In order to compete I am looking at a completely new model, not as generic. That is how I see a brand that can cater to a wide demographic of customers that are the “old way.” But most importantly, this can lead to a much healthier customer, who is more satisfied at the beginning and the end. So it has to do with getting people to take action right away. With an opening of a more outlet store, that is a win. With these new retailing models, we certainly hope that we get more people looking to shop in these outlets.  But we do have to start making investments in a way that our team can work together to ensure that we have the best store in town right now. A customer has always had a right to choose. The customer doesn’t need to be a big fan of a brand, he doesn’t need to know a few things about it. Many of them understand our brand. In order to improve the store experience we know that we need to take the customer’s needs into consideration. I do feel that we have to go beyond just asking customers “Who can we get?” I think that this model could be a very good marketing opportunity for us. I am glad that we went that route, but I am hopeful that we will be able to turn our store into something that allows our customers more choices than simply asking those sorts of questions. I would rather see the online store than just email and have a big chat with my team than going to work and trying to get into that big business. The online store is just part of my job. The retailer is one part of my job. I understand that I do not need a lot of sales representatives to be there, but when I do find one I think, “I’ll actually ask about the shopping experience of my store.” This approach, that kind of helps to simplify the process that I really want to go through in order for any store to succeed. I am hopeful that this allows for a lot larger store to be realized and better value propositions for our customer base. I also don’t know if our goal is to have at least 50,000 members or 50,000 new members to our brand, but we do get to say the same about what we have worked hard for and how much we have to offer the customer.  With an online store with 50 million members that allows retailers all over the U.S. to take on a huge role, I do think that something is going to set us apart from the other retail companies that are trying to compete with our store, namely Amazon and WalMart. With an offline store, you get the idea that I can see where people are coming from and I can get them to shop in the new store. A lot of people who are having more success through such a store are just