“We really doubled down on digital,” says Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Mark Tritton. “We weren’t easy and we weren’t convenient. Life’s tough at the moment and you really want to make it simple, easy, and frictionless for customers. The introduction of BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store), curbside, and now same-day to really facilitate ease and frictionless shopping starting with digital or in-store, wherever the customer wants to go.”
Mark Tritton, CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond, after releasing their earnings report discusses how the company is driving success by leveraging digital with frictionless brick and mortar stores:
Doubling Down On Digital
Our (6 million) new customers coming on board are about six years younger which is great news for us as we expand our customer profile. The key to that is our omni-always strategy. We talk about understanding our customer, how they shop today, and this was pre-COVID. Even more important, we know that 80% of our customers pre-shop online and either purchase there or go to store.
We had a really broken paradigm. We had a fantastic digital business that was very large. We did about $1.8 billion last year. We already beat that by this time this year. We’re large, but we are growing. We really doubled down on that digital aspect. But we weren’t easy and we weren’t convenient. Life’s tough at the moment and you really want to make it simple, easy, and frictionless for our customers.
Stores Are Key To Profitability
So we looked at our website and our integration with our stores which is an ability to leverage our store asset and connect those strongly to an omni environment. It’s really worked out. The introduction of BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store), curbside, and now same-day to really facilitate ease and frictionless shopping starting with digital or in-store, wherever the customer wants to go.
We know that if we have a digital side that is BOPIS, curbside, or same-day, our margin is actually equivalent to a store. We are driving behaviour, driving engagement, and driving those three assets. That’s helping to leverage out our gross margin. As we rapidly expand our digital business the stores are a key to this profitability.