Crate and Barrel Holdings launches multi-year improvement plan

Dive Brief:

Alongside other retailers seeking new tech for their businesses, Crate and Barrel Holdings announced its “Bring It Home” investment plan on Thursday, a multi-year initiative to enhance bits customer experience and grow the company.
The company plans to hire more employees for its technology team, including product managers, engineers, data scientists, architects and “technology leaders.” It will also integrate the business intelligence and customer relationship management teams into the tech division.
Its plan also includes using artificial intelligence technology to personalize customers’ shopping experiences, make its facilities more efficient and minimize its environmental impact, per the press release.

Dive Insight:

With its "Bring it Home" initiative, Crate and Barrel aims to improve its supply chain and cut its carbon footprint, the company noted in its announcement. The company plans to create a brand-new tech stack to facilitate growth across brands, channels and countries, as well as add more automation tools to offer more services for customers, per the press release.

“We have learned so much over the past three years as we have navigated through both a global pandemic and a supply chain crisis,” Janet Hayes, CEO of Crate and Barrel Holdings, said in a statement. “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.”

Before enacting its growth strategy, Crate and Barrel brought on multiple new executives in recent years. The company appointed Alicia Waters as executive vice president; Sebastian Brauer as senior vice president for product design, development and metaverse; and Joan King as executive vice president of digital and international growth, according to a May 2022 press release. It hired former Nike exec Mike Brewer as its new chief operating officer earlier this year.

As Crate and Barrel executes its tech optimization plan, other retailers are trying to tap into new technology for their businesses. A OnePoll survey of 1,000 retail industry directors released last month found that budget restrictions are the top barrier to integrating new technology. Almost half of the respondents said their companies foresee artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision as the leading technologies to impact the retail sector in the future.