Home furnishings retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond plans to upgrade its websites and mobile apps in 2016. It also plans to add same-day delivery in some markets.
Bed Bath & Beyond, No. 80 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, does not break out online sales figures but says “comparable sales from customer-facing digital channels grew in excess of 25% while comparable sales from stores were relatively flat during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.” That quarter ended Feb. 27, 2016.
CEO Steven Temares told analysts on the retailer’s Q4 2015 earnings call that Bed Bath & Beyond will relaunch its mobile apps this year, improve its mobile website and invest in personalization features.
“As consumer shopping preferences evolve, we remain focused on providing a consistently better and more personalized customer experience across all of our retail channels,” he told analysts, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “Our team will continue to leverage analytics in order to optimize our marketing strategies as we learn more about our customers and how they prefer to interact with us. This will enable us to tailor our marketing communications and provide our customers with more personalized, timely and relevant information.”
Bed Bath & Beyond also is expanding its fulfillment capabilities this year with plans to open an 800,000-square-foot distribution center in Texas.
The new center will primarily fulfill online orders and improve delivery capabilities, he said. “We are also working with various partners to offer same-day delivery service in a limited number of markets,” though did not say which markets the retailer is targeting or which vendors it is working with.
For the fourth quarter ended Feb. 27, Bed Bath & Beyond reported:
- Net revenue of $3.418 billion, up 2.4% from $3.337 billion in the year-ago quarter.
- Comparable sales gains, which include online sales, of 1.7% compared to a 3.7% gain.
- Net earnings of $303.5 million, down 5.5% from $321.1 million last year.
For fiscal 2015, Bed Bath & Beyond reported:
- Net revenue of $12.104 billion, up 1.9% from $11.881 billion in fiscal 2014.
- Comparable sales gains, which include online sales, of 1.0% compared to a 2.4% gain.
- Net earnings of $841.5 million, down 12.1% from $957.5 million.