Cover Story: Getting Organized

"Since a lot of our customers are moms with small children, they really appreciate the ability to pull up to their local stores and have their car loaded," Davis says. "It is especially helpful when they have heavy or bulky items and they don't want to bring their children into 
the store."

An ideal multichannel experience should meet a core customer need, and The Container Store is executing a strategy that does exactly that — one where customers complete half of their transactions online and the other half in person, according to Kevin Hillstrom, president of MineThatData, a database marketing consultancy.