High-end home furnishings retailer William-Sonoma (WSM) is on a roll, capitalizing on an enduring upswing in spending on products and projects that intensify and spruce up living spaces. This favorable trend, which emerged during the pandemic, combined with a solid housing market, the company’s digital-first strategy, and its on-trend designs, has transformed WSM into a high-growth retailer that’s steadily gaining market share. These characteristics were on display once again last night as the company crushed quarterly EPS estimates for the fourth straight quarter, fueled by its strongest top-line growth in over five years.One item that stands out about WSM’s performance is the consistency across its brands. Oftentimes, multi-brand retailers will have a brand or two that fall behind, but that’s not the case for WSM. Each one of its banners generated comparable revenue growth north of 20%, including +26.2% at Williams Sonoma, +25.7% at Pottery Barn, and +25.2% at West Elm. All together, WSM’s comparable brand revenue growth accelerated to 25.7% from 24.4% last quarter.Based on the strong growth, it’s clear that WSM’s in-house product designs are resonating very well with clients. However, without the company’s eCommerce capabilities, it would have a difficult time translating those appealing designs into sales since many consumers are still avoiding brick-and-mortar stores. WSM has been ahead-of-the-curve, though, in its digital transformation, as evidenced by its 47.9% eCommerce comp growth. Almost three quarters of the company’s sales are now derived from digital channels.What’s especially encouraging for WSM is that it has achieved this uplift in sales growth without being promotional. This is illustrated in the 450-bps expansion in gross margin to 42.1%, which WSM partially credits to higher yr/yr merchandise margins. In other words, clients have been willing to pay full prices for WSM products, demonstrating strong pricing power.
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