Williams-Sonoma

Laura J. Alber became the CEO of Williams-Sonoma in January 2010.  In addition to Williams-Sonoma, the San Francisco-based retailer owns West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Pottery Barn Kids.  The company has seen sales drop for the last couple of years, but anticipates sales to climb to as far as $3,370,000,000 this year, nine percent more than 2009.  The company’s top earnings were in 2007 at $3,940,000,000.

Alber’s strategy for this tough economic time is to expand its moderately priced West Elm chain and improve online sales for the entirecompany.  Since there is a major slump in home sales, she is depending on home renovations.

Approximately four-fifths of furniture sales are a result of home renovations.  A family that intends on staying in the same home for several years tends to spend more on big-ticket items like furniture.

Internet furniture sales will increase as much as two-and-a-half billion the next five years in the United States.  Williams-Sonoma is positioning itself for a large portion of that growth.  The company had $943,000,000 in online sales last year, more than three times that of Crate & Barrel.  It is the leader of online home furnishing sales.

The company’s B2C model affords a cost-effective option to opening brick-to-mortar stores.  The Internet is Williams-Sonoma’s most lucrative channel and hopes that e-commerce, rather than traditional stores, will lead them through an uncertain economic environment.

This poor economy has caused shoppers to avoid enticement by avoiding stores.  The Internet keeps shoppers engaged with the company, fumbling frugality with temptation.

William-Sonoma should make their web site more user-friendly.  It is not easy to navigate.

Williams-Sonoma can advertising on Facebook via pay-per-click to lure specific demographics to appropriate items on their site.  Advertisements with photos of a pre-made Thanksgiving dinners would most likely interest single urban business people, a roasting pan would interest women with children, while a turkey fryer would probably interest 30ish men.

In addition, I suggest advertising in online games, like Farmville and Second City, to attract the generation Y crowd.  Second City is so successful that IBM has dedicated full-time employees to promote their products to Second City users.

Another avenue for promotion is advertising in television and movies through product placement.  It will increase brand recognition and is subtle and effective.