Leading a retail brand through pandemic disruption: lessons from Crate & Barrel's CEO

Executive overview

Janet Hayes became CEO of Crate & Barrel Holdings in August 2020, with stores closed and COVID uncertainty acute. She chose flexibility over control — with employees, vendors, and strategy — and the business hit record growth.

The core moves: reset each brand with clarity and purpose, lead digitally while using stores as experience and fulfilment assets, and treat trust as the foundation for results.

Flexibility is not a concession — it is the engine of momentum.

Supply chain: short-term reaction and long-term repositioning

• Disruption spans vendors, shipping, ports, trucking, and in-store labour costs
• Stores used as mini distribution centres to remove time from the supply chain
• Extended vendor visibility to three-year growth forecasts (previously much shorter)
• Shared knowledge and grace across the industry created unusual cross-competitor collaboration
• Both short-term reaction and long-term repositioning run simultaneously — no brake, both feet on the pedal

Brand reset: waking the sleeping beauty

• Crate & Barrel had strong affinity but no recency — people remembered it fondly but weren't shopping there
• Repositioned around "a home with purpose": kitchen, bedroom, living room, kids — the whole home
• Programmes relaunched: wedding registry, interior design, trade business, digital design services
• CB2 expanding into new markets; Crate & Barrel Kids declared a digital-only brand
• Each brand given its own clear lane to eliminate customer confusion

Becoming a digitally led omni-channel business

• "Digitally led" means starting with digital insights, not just having a website
• Stores serve as inspiration and experience moments, not just transaction points
• QR codes and digital catalogues embedded into the physical retail experience
• Real-time social data used directly: spotted Pinterest trend for coloured glassware, sent targeted email next day — sold out
• The more investment in digital, the stronger every channel becomes

What makes a good store

• Legible footsteps: if your own path through the store gets interrupted, the customer's will too
• Clear signage; service available but not overwhelming
• Best product visible and well-presented — local or best-sellers
• Customers are now surgical shoppers; long meanders are out, destination clarity is in

Workforce: trust over location

• Declared a flexible workplace early: value talent, collaboration, and results — not location
• Different teams self-organised: digital team stayed remote; brand teams chose three days in-office; marketing teams similar
• Once trust was extended, teams worked faster and smarter than before
• Labour disruption is as significant as supply chain disruption — treat it with the same seriousness
• Concern is that teams aren't celebrating enough given what they've achieved
• On the Great Resignation: embraced it — retail is hard and requires genuine passion; unhappy employees leaving is the right outcome

Sustainability: from personal passion to company mandate

• Hayes grew up in California; sustainability is a personal value before a business one
• Products assessed for FSC wood, organic cotton, Oeko-Tex, GreenGuard certification
• New distribution centre in Romeoville, Illinois won a Three Green Globe award
• Customers have moved from expressing sustainability preference to making it a purchasing mandate
• Keeping products out of landfill through quality is itself a sustainability strategy

Lessons after 16 months as CEO

• Be a flexible company — it forces modern thinking
• Retail is a team sport; include vendors and supply chain partners in that team
• Show grace to partners during shared disruption — it comes back to the customer
• The customer is always at stake: they have more choices, and whoever is in stock fastest wins
• Came in thinking retail knowledge was the edge; left humbled by the innovation and trust shown by the team