The company has experienced significant growth since its foundation. As of 2017, the Williams-Sonoma Corporation had 631 stores in operation worldwide. Retail stores from the Williams-Sonoma brands are found across the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, as well as through third-party franchises, in the Philippine’s and the Middle East. In 2016, the company recorded net revenues in excess of 5 billion U.S. dollars for the first time. The company has expanded and diversified its profile, which includes a wide array of products, such as furniture, home furnishings, cookware, kitchen ware, home gifts and cookbooks.
Williams-Sonoma also operates through an extensive network of websites and gift registries. Additionally, the company sells its products through direct mail catalogs and has a strong online presence, placing among the leading e-retailers in the United States in 2017, based on their online retail sales.
In terms of their retail brands, Pottery Barn, an upscale home furnishings store chain acquired by Williams-Sonoma in 1986, is by far the company’s most important source of revenue, with global net revenues worth over 2 billion U.S. dollars in 2017. These figures do not include the Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen specialty spinoffs, which showcase the same design aesthetic as the mother-brand, but geared toward younger audiences. All three offer upscale home furniture (indoor and outdoor), bedding, rugs and curtains, and many other decorative accessories. The Williams-Sonoma stores similarly offer home furniture, but also strive to continue the legacy of the original Sonoma, California shop, focusing on all things cooking and dining, with products including cookware, cutlery, food processors and many cookbooks, some written by the company’s founder himself.
West Elm, which was launched in 2002, is similar in scope with Pottery Barn in its specialty offerings, while aiming to provide customers with more exclusive designs, resulting from collaboration with both global and local independent designers and craftsmen. The most recent additions to the Williams-Sonoma portfolio are Rejuvenation, a Portland, Oregon manufacturer and retailer of vintage lighting and house decorations, and Mark and Graham, a manufacturer of monogrammed and otherwise personalized apparel, home ware, jewelry and gifts.
