Eye on Retail: AI and Crate & Barrel
Crate & Barrel Holdings, Inc. is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will support delivery of a seamless, personalized customer experience.
The specialty home furnishings retailer is launching a multi-year investment plan called “Bring it Home,” focused on what it says will be “significant” spending on talent, technology, and infrastructure. The stated goal of Bring it Home is “delivering a seamless, premium and personalized customer experience through a digital-first operating model and modern technology foundation.”
The official announcement of Bring it Home follows the company’s promotion of three executives in May 2022 to drive its future growth. Crate & Barrel also added a new metaverse position at that time.
Following is a brief overview of Crate & Barrel’s investment plans in technology, infrastructure, and workforce:
Technology
• Building a new technology stack from the ground up for multi-brand, multi-channel, multi-country growth opportunities.
• Accelerating universal apps with next-generation AI technology in an effort to provide a more personalized, premium and seamless customer experience.
Infrastructure
• Utilizing AI technology and automation to increase facility efficiencies and optimize inventory for quicker customer deliveries and a reduced carbon footprint.
• Increasing automation across channels to identify and offer services for customers based on their preferences.
Workforce
• Double the size of the technology team over the next three years, hiring new product managers, engineers, architects, data scientists, and executives.
• Moving the business intelligence and CRM functions to this new technology team to align the technology solutions with real-time outcomes, analytics and reporting.
Crate & Barrel hopes this investment strategy will enable it to optimize inventory, use real-time data to predict demand, automate decisions, and offer fast, complete and reliable delivery. The retailer will build an integrated, automated and AI-driven enterprise technology stack to support internal efficiencies and sustainability that it intends to enhance the omnichannel customer experience.
The retailer also plans to optimize its supply chain with a proprietary process that maximizes efficiencies, with intended outcomes of improved customer experience and reduced carbon footprint.
"We have learned so much over the past three years as we have navigated through both a global pandemic and a supply chain crisis," said Janet Hayes, CEO of Crate & Barrel Holdings. "By leading with a modern mindset, we experienced unprecedented growth during these times of tremendous pressure and these investments will help us maintain that momentum."
Global specialty retailer Crate & Barrel Holdings Inc. includes brands Crate & Barrel, CB2, Crate & Kids, and Hudson Grace. The company is a member of the Otto Group and operates more than100 Crate & Barrel, CB2 and Hudson Grace stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, with franchise locations in nine countries.
This article first appeared in Chain Store Age, a sister publication of HBSDealer.
