The Strategy Behind Williams-Sonoma's Global Expansion

Williams-Sonoma is using SuiteCommerce for a number of business functions for its international business, including product procurement, logistics, reconciliation, financials and point of sale. Sites that are live in the U.K. and Australia include Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and West Elm; the Williams-Sonoma brand site is live in Australia only.

We were looking for an integrated commerce platform to support an end-to-end customer and commerce relationship, Bogan said. NetSuite has helped Williams-Sonoma accomplish that.

Lessons Learned
Bogan looked back at some of the lessons Williams-Sonoma learned from its initial venture into international commerce. Here's a rundown of those lessons:

• Cross-dock: Williams-Sonoma struggled with maintaining accurate inventory tracking. For example, products were being sold in-store that weren't entered into the inventory system, leading to negative inventory counts.
• Product assortment: Bogan conceded that Williams-Sonoma didn't do enough market analysis to determine the best products to sell in the U.K. and Australia. He cited an example of poor sales for backpacks in Australia. What the retailer didn't know was that children in Australia are provided free backpacks.
• New peak seasons: Boxing Day wasn't on the radar of Williams-Sonoma when it was just selling domestically, Bogan said. That changed when the retailer opened stores and a website in the U.K.

Other lessons learned included a lack of brand awareness, working with new vendors, working with new builders for its brick-and-mortar stores, finding third-party providers for fulfillment, and differences in product testing standards. Every market has it nuances, Bogan said.

What's Next?
Williams-Sonoma has plans to expand into more countries — Bogan wasn't willing to disclose where just yet — with both brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce websites. In fact, it's in the process of opening new stores in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as more brand websites in the U.K. The websites that are already live in those markets will be getting more functionality as well. For example, the U.K. and Australian sites recently added a gift registry feature, and a better allocation system for in-store inventory is in the works.