Open-Shelf Solution
The Container Store has become synonymous with getting organized, and nowhere has this been more evident than the chain’s recently re-launched website. Running on an open-source solution from Broadleaf Commerce, it has enabled the 48-store chain to serve a growing customer segment with new features while eliminating costly fees.
The open-source market “is thriving with a variety of powerful tools,” says Tom Birmingham, the chain’s CIO, and “the platform has allowed us to take e-commerce to the next level.”
The Container Store undertook the transition to open-source with the goal of a 14-month payback period. “From that point forward, savings are about $500,000 every two years, and that escalates by not having to pay license and maintenance fees,” Birmingham says. “The savings are nice, but the big thing is having a platform that helps us pursue opportunities.”
Online sales currently account for 10 percent of the chain’s total sales, according to online marketing director Catherine Davis, and have been growing at an average rate of about 25 percent annually.
One of the biggest opportunities The Container Store is pursuing is a true multi-channel strategy. In 2008, it launched “Click & Pickup,” whereby customers can pick up purchases at a store within an hour of ordering online. Now the company is “taking that one step further, so customers can call ahead and we will deliver merchandise to them curbside,” Davis says.
The migration of the website has enabled the chain to move forward on a number of other initiatives, as well. “We did a lot to drive multi-channel customer growth and layer additional conversion experiences on the website, like product recommendations and rave reviews, which can leverage both in-store and online sales,” she says.
Integrating customer interactions
Prior to the re-launch, The Container Store “had a pretty aggressive multi-channel development agenda and we wanted a good platform that would enable us to get better integration with other systems and set us up to deliver unique capabilities,” Birmingham says. “And if you’re going to do a good job at multi-channel retailing, you need three things from a system standpoint – real-time supply chain visibility, tight integration with customer intelligence and systems that coordinate the execution of activities in stores and distribution centers.”
The new website enables the company to go after three different types of customers: those who want heavy merchandise but don’t want to pay shipping; those who want things immediately by shopping on the web; and those who purchase online and swing by the store to pick it up. “This also enables us to service people who just want to be sure that the products they ordered are at the store when they get there, as well as those who want something fast, which is why we’re offering that curbside service,” Davis says.
Until quite recently, The Container Store’s customers fit rather neatly into one of two camps: those who shopped the stores, and those who shopped online. “Now they have exposure to both,” Davis says, “and we’ve learned that customers who use both services dramatically outperform the rest of the customer base and are probably the fastest-growing segment” – approximately 70 percent, year-over-year. “On a daily basis, about 35 to 40 percent of our orders [now] go through Click & Pickup rather than through the standard order and delivery method.”
Work on the website began in March 2009 and it was re-launched in September to coincide with new marketing campaigns, including a storewide sale. “We are able to channel unproductive money that we were paying out for license and maintenance fees — stagnant cost of operations — into additional development resources that are fully aligned with our business objectives,” Birmingham says.
