Restoration Hardware 2015 Annual Report Download - page 10

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7
Management and Information Technology
We use industry-standard information technology systems to provide customer service, business process support, and business
intelligence across our sales channels. Our technology team continues to upgrade several of our core systems, including:
• Implementing enhanced in-store, web, and care center customer service and commerce technology to provide enhanced
capabilities to support our luxury customer experience;
• Optimizing and enhancing inventory management capabilities to improve inventory productivity and service levels across
our supply chain;
• Implementing enhanced special order capabilities optimizing processes to support our increasingly expanding product
assortment;
• Upgrading our web commerce and in-store capabilities with state-of-the art technology to optimize performance and
improve the customer shopping experience;
• Implementing supply chain technology and enhancements to support our expanding supply chain network improving
operating efficiencies, accuracy, and service levels; and
• Optimizing and enhancing our enterprise data warehouse platform to expand data analysis areas to allow more timely and
complete analysis of current business trends, results, and comparisons to our historical performance.
We believe these substantial upgrades to our information technology systems provide management with the ability to drive
ongoing improvement in our operating model, focus on efficiency opportunities, and increase management control. New access to
results through our technology tools also equips management to more timely identify, analyze and respond to business trends.
Over the next several years, we intend to further enhance our IT capabilities to support our growth. Key initiatives include:
• Further enhancing our delivery, order orchestration, inventory optimization, procurement, order management and vendor
collaboration solutions to maximize operating efficiencies focused on enhancing the end-to-end customer experience; and
• Continuing our expansion and redefinition of business intelligence capabilities to optimize information for timely decision
making in areas such as supply chain and customer experience.
We are committed to a high level of integration in technology across our business. We believe our approach to technology
demonstrates an appropriate balance of strategic planning and innovation to support both today’s business and tomorrow’s growth.
Competition
The home furnishings industry is highly competitive. We primarily compete against a large number of independent retailers that
provide unique items and custom-designed product offerings at high price points, including antique dealers and home furnishings
retailers who market to the interior design community. We also compete with national and regional home furnishings retailers and
department stores, as well as with mail order catalogs and online retailers focused on home furnishings.
We believe we compete primarily on the basis of design, quality, value and customer service. We believe our distinct
combination of design, quality and value allows us to compete effectively and we believe we differentiate ourselves from competitors
based on the strength of our brand, products and our fully integrated multi-channel business model. We compete with the interior
design trade and specialty merchants by providing a broader product assortment at an exceptional value based both upon the price and
quality of our products. We compete against certain other home furnishings retailers primarily by offering what we believe are
superior quality, highly distinctive design styles and a sophisticated lifestyle presentation in our product offering.
We also believe that our success depends in substantial part on our ability to originate and define product trends, as well as to
timely anticipate, gauge and react to changing consumer demands. Certain of our competitors are larger and have greater financial,
marketing and other resources than us. However, many smaller specialty retailers may lack the financial resources, infrastructure,
scale and national brand identity necessary to compete effectively with us. We believe we are effectively positioned between these two
market segments to gain market share and drive growth.