One of the first things that Alex Smith did when he took over as CEO of Pier 1 Imports was shut down the company's website. "It was horrible," he told attendees at the company's annual shareholder meeting this week.
Three years into Mr. Smith's tenure at Pier 1 and things are looking up. The retailer posted a profit in the first quarter (its first in six years) and same-store sales were up 14.3 percent during the period.
"We not only survived the recession, we survived it stronger and fitter," said Mr. Smith. "We are virtually debt-free with cash in the bank."
And now, Pier 1 is ready to go back online. Mr. Smith said the company plans to launch a site-to-store option in September. Consumers would go online to choose an item and then pick it up at one of the company's 1,050 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Taking this route, according to Mr. Smith, allows the company to offer the convenience of online ordering without having to develop the infrastructure needed to properly manage a consumer-direct operation.
Mr. Smith doesn't believe that Pier 1's online reentry will be a negative for the company.
"The pie is still there," he told Dow Jones Newswires. "We had a very acute business situation that we had to fix. [E-commerce sales were] de minimus, so we weren't giving up a whole lot by getting rid of it."
Discussion Questions: What is your assessment of the general direction taken by Pier 1 Imports? How successful do you expect it to be with its site-to-store online model?