BUILD-A-BEAR Workshop Launches New Ecommerce Site
The company’s recent digital transformation investment includes a mobile-first website and marketing technology solutions. Build-A-Bear Workshop announces a new website design with improvements allowing the Company, best known for its interactive and iconic bear-building experience in stores, to provide an updated digital space for guests to engage with the brand. The Company’s recent investment in […]
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The company’s recent digital transformation investment includes a mobile-first website and marketing technology solutions.
Build-A-Bear Workshop announces a new website design with improvements allowing the Company, best known for its interactive and iconic bear-building experience in stores, to provide an updated digital space for guests to engage with the brand. The Company’s recent investment in its digital transformation includes a refreshed mobile-first website and marketing technology solutions that give consumers better access to making their furry friends.
Sharon Price John, Build-A-Bear Workshop President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “While we celebrate the first 25 years of success at Build-A-Bear with our silver anniversary in 2022, we remain focused on the future and our continued expansion. At the centre of these plans are two of our strategic pillars designed to deliver sustained profitable growth: accelerating a comprehensive digital transformation and continuing to evolve our retail experience, including expanding our omnichannel capabilities. With a multi-year cadenced digital transformation, we can provide our guests multiple options to connect with our brand personality, in-store and in the digital space. With record-setting 2022 first-half results, on top of the most profitable year in our history in 2021, we believe we are on the right track to achieve our goals.”
The Company has continued aggressively expanding its e-commerce business compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. In recent months, it has been improving the site experience and infrastructure while launching new features to make online bear-building easier and more engaging.
Jenn Kretchmar, Build-A-Bear Workshop Chief Digital and Merchandising Officer, said, “Our Company has grown its digital demand by 18 per cent for the first half of 2022 compared to the same period in 2019. It resulted in our strategic need to continue building our digital future and responding to our expanding omnichannel business. A key to our success has been creating engaging online experiences while building core omnichannel digital capabilities with expanded technologies and a new customer loyalty platform.”
Build-A-Bear’s website redesign on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, launching this week, features a new user experience, improved functionality and martech solutions to provide a frictionless experience for guests. With the support of Deloitte Digital, these upgrades include an elevated design that allows for better storytelling, showcasing products, sharing events and promotions and easier access to information from all devices with its mobile-first design. Guests will experience a faster and more seamless checkout and payment process and will experience new ease of navigating to Build-A-Bear’s growth brand sites such as The Bear Cave, HeartBox and the Bear Builder 3D workshop.
“Working with Deloitte Digital, we have been able to reimagine our online experience on Build-A-Bear’s website. We want our guests to get the same wow factor they do when they walk into a retail store as when they engage with the brand online,” added Kretchmar. “Our website plays a critical role in the guest experience, from pre-shopping before visiting a Workshop location to building and personalising a furry friend online for home delivery. With the site’s enhancements, we will soon be able to show product availability specific to store locations, making same-day delivery or in-store pick-up gift-giving options even more seamless.”
This investment in the martech space is also part of the Company’s strategic move to expand its digital capabilities and guest personalisation efforts. Build-A-Bear’s investment in technology solutions allows for streamlining the guest journey to ensure the Build-A-Bear experience remains seamless and fun, delivering on the brand’s reputation for interactivity and creativity.
Leveraging tools such as ABTasty, Cartful, Pimberly, Contentsquare and Google Analytics 4 360 will help Build-A-Bear provide seamless experiences across channels.
“We love having guests in our retail stores. We want to ensure that guests continue to have a path of engagement and increased loyalty to our brand when guests leave the store. So having the tools to capture first-party data enables us to reengage and stay connected, offer personalisation for shopping and gifting occasions and create a lasting friendship with our guests,” said Kretchmar.
