Inside Crate and Barrel's Significant Store Labor Efficiency Gains

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

January 2014 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

After a human capital management software implementation, store labor efficiency gains amplify success at Crate and Barrel.

That Crate and Barrel prioritizes the customer experience and its merchandise above virtually all else is a bit of an understatement. As the story goes, when the brand opened its first store in Chicago back in the 1960s, company founders realized they’d forgotten a key piece of equipment — the cash register — only after they’d ushered in their first guests. Today the company operates 110 North American stores under the Crate and Barrel, CB2, and The Land of Nod banners. While stylish simplicity of form and function still characterize Crate and Barrel’s stores and merchandise, technology — especially that which improves the customer experience — is playing a more prominent role than it used to. Recently, its simplistic Excel-based approach to scheduling the more than 5,000 associates that staff its Crate and Barrel and CB2 stores was replaced with a much more sophisticated HCM (human capital management) system.