Cross-Channel Integration: The Integrated Shopper

Williams-Sonoma
I'm not sure what Williams-Sonoma did with its catalog in recent years, but it seemed like the brand had lost its way. What was once a powerhouse in the industry slowly turned into a mediocre book that was no longer special. Williams-Sonoma had lost its mojo. I'm glad to report that with its Holiday 2012 catalog, Williams-Sonoma seems to be back on track. In fact, the catalog is quite impressive. Big, bold photography coupled with stories that get at the heart of what makes its products better, this book does many things right. The pacing of the layouts makes flipping through it an adventure, one discovery after another. Williams-Sonoma provides gift ideas for all budgets, advice on how to make the perfect pot of beans and recipes throughout. Really, really nice.

Williams-Sonoma's website is equally impressive. Same big, bold photography, same expert advice and same depth of information. The brand manages to offer a lot of stuff without making it feel overwhelming. I can buy a lot of these same products elsewhere, but Williams-Sonoma makes a good case for why I should buy them from it. I love the way it's arranged the navigation by "gifts by category, gifts by occasion, gifts by price, gifts by recipient." This allows me to shop the way I choose. Overall, a nice experience.

Thankfully, Williams-Sonoma did have a mobile-optimized website. The mobile site was easy to use and navigate, however, it took awhile to dig through several layers of options before I could find what I was looking for. Also, the mobile version of Williams-Sonoma's site seemed to lose a lot of the brand's personality, whereas Crate & Barrel was able to maintain its in this limited channel.

Then came the store visit. Ugh … disappointing. If I hadn't seen the sign on the door, I wouldn't have known I was in a Williams-Sonoma store. Nothing unique or special stood out. The interesting stories I found in the catalog and online were missing in-store. Maybe the clerks were tasked with delivering those messages, but they didn't. In fact, they were too busy talking to each other to even notice me. I wondered if I had just caught them on a bad day, so I went to another location. Same deal. Disappointing.

Overall, the Williams-Sonoma brand seems to be finding its way back after drifting in "vanilla land" for years. But it has to tighten up the store experience if it expects to be king of the hill again. Williams-Sonoma gets a C.

This exercise shows how difficult it is to perfectly align all of a brand's various sales channels to create a perfectly seamless shopping experience. Even these three brands, three of the biggest names in the retail industry, fall a little short in some areas. I guess if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Kudos to Crate & Barrel for showing us that it can be done.

Brent Niemuth is a partner and the creative director at J.Schmid & Assoc., a multichannel marketing consulting firm. Brent can be reached at brentn@jschmid.com.