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Williams-Sonoma (WSM) CEO Laura Alber joins Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi at the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the home goods and furniture company's performance and the impact of expected tariffs under President Donald Trump.
Ahead of Williams-Sonoma's fourth quarter earnings release, Alber says the company has seen "sequential improvement this year," which she says is "not surprising."
"Housing is not getting that much better, but certainly isn't getting worse, and that's helpful to businesses that have a correlation to that. And, while that's not the only business we're in, and actually less than half of our business is furniture, it will definitely be amazing when that picks up," she says, adding, "Despite the negative demand that we've had this year, we've had incredible earnings, and we've really improved our [operating] margin."
The CEO says she's looking forward to demand continuing to accelerate, noting, "Can you imagine what happens with the earnings then? Because we've gotten so much traction with our customer service initiatives in improving the customer experience that has driven earnings, but we haven't had that sales leverage yet."
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Economic uncertainty persists as Trump's proposed tariffs are expected to be inflationary, which could impact the Federal Reserve's interest rate-cutting cycle. "We never plan for the economy to drive our business. I always plan it thinking it's the same, not worse, not better. So, it has to be our initiatives," Alber says, adding, "Our big, you know, message for 2025 and beyond is return to growth. Um, I really think we're at the precipice of a very exciting growth cycle for Williams-Sonoma."
Watch the video above to hear more from the Williams-Sonoma CEO.
Click here for more of Yahoo Finance's coverage from the World Economic Forum in Davos.
This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
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