Williams-Sonoma & Wayfair: the power assortment

Williams-Sonoma & Wayfair are both giants of home and decoration retailing. They are also very digital companies, even though they are approaching digital from very different perspectives.

Wayfair is a young and rapidly growing online retailer who is about to open some stores. Williams-Sonoma on the other hand is a 60+ year old company, which has turned into a digital first retailer with 70% of revenue coming from the digital channels.

Of the two, Williams-Sonoma is significantly more profitable. In fact, Wayfair has only once been able to generate profits, during the pandemic.

Williams-Sonoma offers six different brands that appeal to different customers needs and segments. Williams-Sonoma operates 544 stores (down from 631 in 2017). This offers them possibilities to provide different kinds of services from in-store pick up to design services.

With their strong brands, Williams-Sonoma has been able to achieve significantly higher gross margins to Wayfair.