Dive Brief:

• Along with other retailers experimenting with digital content and subscription services, Williams Sonoma has launched its recipe app, William Sonoma Recipes, and a shipping membership program, William Sonoma Reserve, the company announced on Wednesday.
• For $99 per year, the Williams Sonoma Reserve membership program provides customers free shipping on standard items, a subscription to the Williams Sonoma recipes app and access to four of its online cooking classes, according to the announcement. 
• The Williams Sonoma Recipes app lets subscribers view exclusive content and how-to videos as well as find recipes ideal for specific seasons, ingredients, holidays and kitchen appliances.

Dive Insight:

Besides Williams Sonoma, more retailers, including Walmart and Whole Foods, are experimenting with digital content to reach customers.

Last year, Walmart teamed up with Tastemade to create shoppable streaming content that allowed shoppers to text an on-screen number to add the featured ingredients to their online Walmart shopping cart. The retailer tapped interactive video startup Eko earlier this year to create shoppable videos featuring celebrities like singer Patti Labelle and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. In a similar move, Whole Foods collaborated with the meditation app Headspace in March on an IGTV video series called Food for Mood.

"The addition of both the Williams Sonoma Reserve membership program and the Williams Sonoma Recipes app reinforces Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s on-going strategic initiative to develop and deploy additional digital channels for content distribution," the company wrote in a statement. 

A lengthy list of retailers such as Best Buy, Tractor Supply, Claire's, Gap Inc., Nike and Dick's Sporting Goods have turned to both subscription services and loyalty programs to entice and retain consumers. Even Walmart got rid of its $35 minimum requirement for its two-hour Express delivery service and now shoppers who subscribe to the Walmart+ membership don't have to pay a delivery fee. 

"Williams Sonoma Reserve and the Williams Sonoma Recipes app provide our customers new ways to engage with our brand and our coveted recipe content," Williams Sonoma President Ryan Ross said in a statement. "We're excited to extend membership benefits like free shipping to our customers as well as virtual classes as we kick off the holiday shopping and entertaining season."

As Williams Sonoma joins other retailers in enhancing digital content and adding membership programs, the retailer has also recently made additional operational changes. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would expand its manufacturing and distribution capacity by up to 30% over the next year, including adding roughly 2 million square feet to its distribution network. To attract workers during the labor shortage, the company raised its minimum hourly wage to $15 per hour.