Pier 1 Imports CEO Alex Smith is confident that better customer engagement and customer experience will lead the company to omni-channel excellence.
During the company’s third-quarter financial results conference call last month, Smith said that the transformation of Pier 1 Imports from the one of the most profitable bricks-and-mortar home specialty stores to “what we fully expect to be one of the most sophisticated and profitable omni-channel retailers continues,” according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
“We are making profound changes to our business at a speed and in ways not attempted by others in our retail space,” Smith said. “As each quarter goes by, we get nearer to the point when we will view our omni-channel capabilities to be sufficient to claim transition is complete.”
As ecommerce sales penetration continues to advance rapidly, Smith believes the company can restore its base merchandise margins to historic levels of 58% to 60%.
“Our stores and our ecommerce business are inter-dependent and its clear to us they are much more valuable together than separate,” he explained.
The accelerated investment in functionality on pier1.com, including mobile and tablet optimization, is driving significant increases in conversion. Smartphone traffic surpassed desktop traffic for the first time in pier1.com history on Thursday and Sunday of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
“We believe our more aspirational messaging is resonating well with our customers and helping us to grow the size of our customer database, especially the omni-channel shopper,” Smith said. “Our stores tell us that the frequency with which customers are asking to
look at items they have browsed online is increasing. The website is driving store traffic. The fast-growing numbers of customers who shop both online and in store is very encouraging as they spend more than online only or store-only customers.”