Wayfair vs. Williams-Sonoma: Physical Stores & Online Synergies

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Something I found intriguing is Wayfair venturing into physical retail after years of discussing how online is going to take over. I'm curious to understand, since Williams Sonoma has both online and physical retail, did you find any correlation between a store and online sales in the surrounding area? Does opening a store cannibalize online sales, or does it help increase them? And why?

The reality is that they are both symbiotic and very positive to each other. Whether you put a store in a region originally supported by e-commerce, the e-commerce numbers go up, just as you get the volume in the store. Conversely, adding e-commerce to an area is beneficial. I've never tested this extensively, but when I open up e-commerce, it's available to the whole country. However, in the Middle East, Australia, and Canada four years ago, I did add e-commerce, and we found that they were always incremental to each other.

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Can you explain the underlying reason why having a physical store would enhance online sales and vice versa? What creates this symbiosis?

Here's what happens. If you have a store and you don't have e-commerce, you go into the store, you see, you touch, you feel and you like it. And you go home, but you can't buy it on the internet. And so you may not make it back to that store that week, that month or you may just kind of lose interest. If you have e-commerce, the person comes in - and I've seen this so frequently - where the customer comes in, they work with the designer, they work in the store, they see the goods, they go home, they want to think about it that night, they think about it, they sit in their living room and they say, I want that. So they punch it in right then. And that closing the deal is so critical. Many people don't understand that for small items like decorative accessories or Christmas decorations, people can order them online and return them if needed. But for non-returnable items like sofas or custom-made furniture, people visit stores, measure their spaces, and then buy online. A high percentage, about 65%, of sales involve goods the customer has seen in-store. This is why companies like Williams Sonoma have reconsidered aggressively closing stores. They realize the importance of having both physical and online presence, as they work hand in hand. Even Laura, in her investment calls, has talked about their interaction.

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