Company's continued investment in digital technology is
fueling growth and enhancing brand engagement, giving consumers
more ways than ever to experience Build-A-Bear
ST.
LOUIS, Sept. 22,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (NYSE:
BBW), 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 own furry friends.
Sharon Price John, Build-A-Bear
Workshop President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "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 center 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
omni-channel capabilities. With a multi-year cadenced digital
transformation, we can provide our guests multiple options to
connect with our brand on a personal level, 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 to aggressively expand its e-commerce
business compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and in recent
months has been making improvements to 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 commented, "Our
company has grown its digital demand by 180%, for the first half of
2022 compared to the same period in 2019, resulting in the
strategic need for us to continue to build our digital future and
respond to our expanding omnichannel business. A key to our success
has been creating engaging online experiences while building core
omni-channel 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 product, 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 a new ease of
navigating to Build-A-Bear's growth brand sites such as The Bear
Cave, HeartBox and the Bear Builder 3D
WorkshopTM.
"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
personalizing 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 personalization 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—whether guests are
engaging with Build-A-Bear through its iconic in-store experience,
interacting with the brand on social media, or creating a custom
furry friend online.
"We love having guests in our retail stores, and we want to
ensure when a guest leaves the store they continue to have a path
of engagement and increased loyalty with our brand, so having the
tools to capture first party data enables us to reengage and stay
connected, offer personalization for shopping and gifting occasions
and create a lasting friendship with our guests," said
Kretchmar.
Build-A-Bear has been using Commerce Cloud as its platform since
2017, and recently launched the Salesforce Loyalty Cloud. The
loyalty module provides tools that leverage information regarding
purchases from the millions of members in the robust and growing
Bonus Club to grow customer lifetime value with the delivery of
enhanced benefits and perks to guests.
"Salesforce has been an excellent partner for us, and we are
excited to be chosen as their marquee customer at their Dreamforce
conference happening this week in San
Francisco," said Kretchmar. "This is one of the largest
global tech events of the year indicating the scale of what we've
achieved in this space."
The company's CEO, Sharon Price
John, spoke at the "Digital Transformation for an Evolving
Future" event for Commerce Cloud at Dreamforce, and Build-A-Bear
was also featured during the Marketing Cloud Keynote. Tune in to
Dreamforce on Salesforce+.
To further bring the iconic bear-building experience to guests
in the digital space, the company's new website revamp features an
improved Bear Builder 3D Workshop. This unique, animated
digital shopping experience brings furry friends "to life" online
in a process that is inspired by the retail store but also offers
interaction that can only occur digitally. With a reimagined
online retail experience, the Bear Builder 3D Workshop is designed
to guide guests through the iconic bear-building experience from
the stuffing process to the magical heart ceremony to create a
furry friend online. Guest also have the option to select
from a wide variety of clothing and accessories to create a unique
and fashionable look and add a sound to their furry friend. They
also have the option to select Buy Online, Pickup In Store and have
their purchase ready when they arrive at a local Workshop.
"We believe Build-A-Bear is the perfect brand to break the mold
and more closely integrate our digital and physical experiences by
adding more fun and engagement to online shopping as we continue to
execute our digital transformation," said Price
John. "Providing a variety of ways for our consumers to
interface with our brand, while creating connections between those
touchpoints designed to enhance value, is an important part of our
overall strategy. Now, in addition to our iconic
retailtainment locations, guests engage with us through our social
channels, our loyalty club, their own journey through our updated
website, and with our content and award-winning films, so our goal
is to ensure these digital enhancements provide a comprehensive and
appealing brand experience."
Build-A-Bear has also received notable recognition over the past
two years for its efforts online being named on the list of
America's Fastest Growing Online Shops 2022 and America's Best
Trending Online Shops 2021, both awarded by Newsweek and
Statista.
ABOUT BUILD-A-BEAR®
Build-A-Bear is a multi-generational global brand focused on its
mission to "add a little more heart to life" appealing to a wide
array of consumer groups who enjoy the personal expression in
making their own "furry friends" to celebrate and commemorate life
moments. Nearly 500 interactive brick-and-mortar retail locations
operated through a variety of formats provide guests of all ages a
hands-on entertaining experience, which often fosters a lasting and
emotional brand connection. The company also offers engaging
e-commerce/digital purchasing experiences
on buildabear.com including its online "Bear-Builder",
the animated "Bear Builder 3D Workshop" and its age-gated
adult-focused "Bear Cave". In addition, extending its brand power
beyond retail, Build-A-Bear Entertainment, a subsidiary of
Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc., is dedicated to creating engaging
content for kids and adults that fulfills the company's mission,
while the company also offers products at wholesale and in
non-plush consumer categories via licensing agreements with leading
manufacturers. Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. posted total revenue of
$411.5 million in fiscal 2021. For
more information, visit the Investor Relations section
of buildabear.com
Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description
of their legal structure.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/build-a-bear-workshop-launches-new-e-commerce-site-and-enhances-omni-channel-capabilities-301631300.html
SOURCE Build-A-Bear Workshop