Williams Sonoma Inc., the home furnishings retailer that was an early pioneer to business-to-consumer ecommerce, now has aims on higher online and offline sales in another channel: B2B.
“Our largest cross-brand growth driver is business to business,” CEO Laura Alber told analysts on a recent year-end earnings call. “Williams-Sonoma is no longer just a home furnishings company. We furnish our customers everywhere from restaurants to hotels, from football stadiums to office spaces.”
B2B is already a substantial omnichannel sales channel, she told analysts.
Williams-Sonoma has sights set on B2B growth
“We set the ambitious goal this year to reach $1 billion in demand in our B2B business. And we came very close, driving 27% year-over-year growth and 166% on a two-year basis,” Albers told analysts. “And we continue to win B2B accounts due to our design capabilities and the wide range of products offered in our multi-brand portfolio.”
Williams-Sonoma doesn’t break out specific B2B ecommerce metrics. However, the retailer says overall ecommerce in all forms accounts for two-thirds of all sales.
“Our ecommerce channel has been our fastest-growing business over the last several years,” the company says in its most recent annual report. It represented more than 66% of net revenues and profits in fiscal 2022.
In 2022, Williams-Sonoma generated net revenue of $8.67 billion. Based on about 66% of sales coming from ecommerce, Digital Commerce 360 estimates online sales totaled about $5.72 billion last year.
“With the home furnishings market remaining large and fragmented, including the B2B market at an estimated $80 billion TAM (total addressable market), we’re confident that we will continue to gain market share,” Albers said.
Williams-Sonoma’s B2B business is based on a backlog of activity, she says.
“We’re not seeing a slowdown in the commercial side … we have a steady pipeline of RFPs [request for proposals] we’ve gone out on,” Albers told analysts. “In fact, Q4 was the largest quarter of contract to date. The key point here is B2B continues to be a winning strategy for us. And we continue to capture market share in the $80 billion fragmented B2B market. It leverages our portfolio of brands, in-house design, and global sourcing capabilities.”
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