Williams-Sonoma Inc.

West Elm helped Williams-Sonoma deliver another solid financial performance in the first quarter despite negative effects from the West Coast port dispute and sluggish consumer spending.

Total revenue for Williams-Sonoma Inc. in the first quarter ended May 3 grew 5.8% year over year, to $1.03 billion, versus $974 million in the first quarter of 2014. Same store sales from its flagship Williams-Sonoma brand grew 2.7%, Pottery Barn sales increased 2.4%, West Elm delivered a 15.3% increase in comps, Pottery Barn Kids grew 0.8%, and sales from PBteen increased 3% year over year.

San Francisco – Williams-Sonoma Inc. exceeded Wall Street expectations with earnings and sales in the fiscal 2015 first quarter. From the same period the previous year, net income declined 3% to $44.79 million from $46.16 million.

Increases in cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses helped reduce net income. Net revenues rose 6% to $1.03 billion from $973.33 million. The West Elm banner had particularly strong sales growth.

San Francisco - Retailers in the U.S. including Dunkin’ Donuts, Fandango, Sundance Catalog and Williams-Sonoma will now offer Visa Checkout, the online checkout service from Visa Inc. In addition, Pizza Hut, Ticketek and Bonds will offer Visa Checkout in Australia; and Indigo, Roots, Running Room and Simons will offer the service in Canada.

Williams-Sonoma is looking to appeal to its increasingly digital savvy customers with the launch of a free recipe tool for smartphones.

The retailer, in collaboration with Weldon Owen Publishing, a division of Bonnier Corp., and Culinate Inc., has released the Williams-Sonoma Recipe of the Day app on Apple's App Store.

Williams-Sonoma set a milestone in 2014 that helped the retailer post an impressive jump in same store sales and profit.

The specialty retailer of home furnishing products reported that for the first time ever, e-commerce sales made up more than 50% of all revenues in 2014.

Williams-Sonoma said its fourth quarter net revenues grew 5.2% to $1.542 billion versus $1.466 billion in the prior year quarter. Same store sales grew of 5.1%. Earnings per share grew 13.8% to $1.57 from $1.38 in the prior year quarter.

Williams-Sonoma set a milestone in 2014 that helped the retailer post an impressive jump in same store sales and profit.

The specialty retailer of home furnishing products reported that for the first time ever, e-commerce sales made up more than 50% of all revenues in 2014.

Williams-Sonoma said its fourth quarter net revenues grew 5.2% to $1.542 billion versus $1.466 billion in the prior year quarter. Same store sales grew of 5.1%. Earnings per share grew 13.8% to $1.57 from $1.38 in the prior year quarter.

San Francisco -- Williams-Sonoma set a milestone in 2014 as it reported that, for the first time ever, e-commerce sales made up more than 50% of all yearly revenues.

Williams-Sonoma said its fourth quarter net revenues grew 5.2% to $1.542 billion versus $1.466 billion in the prior year quarter.

Same-store sales grew of 5.1%.

Kmart and Best Buy are among the retailers that helped St. Jude’s Hospital raise more than $100 million for the second year in a row.

Kmart led all fundraising for St. Jude’s once again at $17.5 million, bringing its grand total to date to $76 million. Best Buy saw its campaign increase from nearly $1 million in 2013 to $9.7 million.