The big question: How can retail chains survive the pandemic?

Sarah Halzack : As the head of Williams-Sonoma Inc, you oversee a company that includes home-goods chains such as Pottery Barn and West Elm. Let’s rewind to mid-March, when the scope and the scale of the pandemic was becoming clear. What was the most urgent change you knew you needed to make? What area of the business needed to be addressed first?

Laura Alber, president and CEO, Williams-Sonoma Inc : Like everyone, it really caught us off guard. And the most important thing for us is the safety of our people. So we wanted to be thoughtful about what to do, and we spent a lot of time on that... I knew we needed to be aggressive and prioritise those things that would make a difference and cut those things that we could wait on.

We were 56 per cent e-commerce heading into the pandemic. So we were very fortunate that we were able to pivot quickly and capture the shift to digital. A couple years back, we had purchased a company called Outward that does 3-D room planning for us. So we didn’t just have a website, we had tools that we then used to help people who still wanted to buy for their home to envision what it would look like.

Previous to Covid, we would go into people’s homes and do room planning with them. We now had to do that all virtually. It was amazing to watch our store associates pivot to doing digital design. We had the tools, and our associates were so innovative about how to use them. So we quickly saw our virtual design-chat pipeline of sales grow exponentially.

Our mission has been to improve people’s lives at home. And that value colours not just what we sell, but how we sell things and how we source things and the company we are. It was probably a [one] week decision to decide what we were going to do with our store associates, knowing we were probably going to be closed at least a quarter. Those values made it very clear to me what the right decision was, which was to keep the people who have been working more than 12 hours [a week] on the payroll, so that the people who really relied on us didn’t have to file for unemployment and didn’t have to worry. At first, we didn’t know how long we could keep it up. But it soon became clear that this is a key priority for us.

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We require masks in our stores, that’s key. We’re not shy about that, and we provide them if you don’t have one. We haven’t had a lot of lines yet maybe in the beginning we did at a few stores but we’ve been able to limit the number of customers and associates consistent with state-specific guidelines. But we’re also allowing people to make appointments. That’s going to become even more important during the holidays. We have signage to encourage social distancing, the directional traffic arrows. We did plexiglass to separate customers at the register. We’re talking all the time on how to stay safe. The customers really appreciate it; they notice. If they want to shop outside the store and just come and pick the goods up from the back door, we will bring their stuff out.

What we want to do, back to that mission statement of enhancing people’s lives, is show them how to enjoy their time at home more. So, of course, work from home, study from home, are very relevant. We’ve addressed that category with more product, better shop path, more visibility, more inventory. I think that trend is here to stay. We see that many people will have hybrid work environments. Many companies are saying they’re not even going to come back. So this is a key growth category for us and one that we can really own.

Outdoors, of course, may be the only way you’re going to see your mother, your relatives, your close friends. There are opportunities that are even bigger, particularly as it gets cold outside. How do we keep people warm? How do we show people how to do turkey on the barbecue? Those are challenges that we’re having as much fun with as we can.

If you’re not going to buy a chandelier, offering you 20 per cent off doesn’t matter. If I’m talking to you about study from home, and I send to people who have kids, How to set up your kids’ study station, that’s really relevant to you. So we’re trying to pick things that cross the most people and have the right tone. But then we also use targeted email and targeted advertising based on things you’re interested in.

We were already trimming our fleet. This year, we said [before the pandemic] we were going to close 30 and I think we’re closing 50. The strategy is that we’d like to be there. When the economics work, we’ll stay.

I started in the direct-to-consumer business, it was called catalogue. I became the catalogue person who pushed DTC for Pottery Barn and really grew that business. I think when I started it was $100 million. You know how big Pottery Barn is today, it was amazing to watch that happen. Also, during my time, just looking at other opportunities, businesses to start, businesses to buy, it’s been like being an entrepreneur Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, the Pottery Barn growth in bed and bath, all the categories outdoor, West Elm. We bought Rejuvenation. That is something that we thought, wow, we know how to grow that, and we have. And then the evolution of Williams-Sonoma, making it really relevant. These have been things that have been really fulfilling to see happen, and behind every one of those things is a very passionate and excellent person who has been driving those businesses. So I see my job as helping them find the great strategies and supporting them to get things done.

What will shopping look like after Covid-19?

I really believe the cooking more at home trend is here to stay. We’re seeing more and more people, especially millennials, learn how to cook, which is a lifelong skill that’s going to drive our business over the long term. We talked about digital transformation that’s here to stay. The other big trend is values-based retailing, from sustainability to equity to how you treat your people. I think consumers are more mindful than ever. Lastly, more people are working at home. They’ll be less tied to a specific city. And they’re going to move a lot more. Every time they move, frankly, even if you scale down, it’s good for us, because you need to get different furniture. Those are the hyper-spend moments. Regardless of your lifestyle or size of your home, one of our brands or even better yet, all of them can help you build your ideal home.

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