How Home Depot and Lowe are preparing for the renovation season of a busy home amid coronavirus uncertainty – gotech daily

One of the minor benefits to retailers during the coronavirus outbreak was that there were no strikes during peak selling times, such as during the holiday season. There is one notable exception. A $ 900 billion home renovation unit headed by Home Depot and Lowe.

As people replace bathroom tiles, install new kitchen cabinets, restore driveways at the end of winter, people catch up, home improvement springs are the busiest of the year, and the annual sales of the year. It accounts for about 30%. During the spring season, Home Depot and Rowe Christmas is Macys or Best Buy.

Home improvement retailers were among the lucky ones who were considered essential to enable them to be open. Also, the March business was lively and helped by millions of teleworkers.

People are at home and trying to get the project done in the house, says Sherry Cohan, professor of retail management at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Lowe CEO Marvin Ellison told Fortune last month that customers are using electric appliances such as freezers to store food for long periods of time and buy cleaning supplies. The US Department of Commerce figures also reflect the surge in home remodeling in March. Last month, sales of building materials and garden equipment increased by 7.6%.

But as with other retailers, especially Walmart and Target, the need to stop the spread of the virus has now led to steps to put a brake on that surge.

For example, a small Sherwin Williams paint store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan only allows sidewalk pick-ups to a 100,000-square-foot large box store at Home Depot, with large and small stores holding 100 customers. Restricts shopper traffic. time. Lowe s also monitors store traffic.

Moreover, when Home Depot announced in early April that it would not hold a massive spring promotion to avoid increased traffic to stores, it would be more likely to stay ahead of any other major retailer. Ruining your business. That wouldnt be Black Fridays doorbuster, as Walmart says.

And Home Depot pays the price. For example, according to data from Placer.ai, a technology company that tracks store traffic, for example, on April 14, visits to home depots fell by more than 20% on the same day of 2019.

But the move is in line with Home Depots long-term outlook, analysts say. This allows our customers to feel safe and empathize with their consumers, says Cohan. It builds tremendous loyalty now.

In addition, she adds that her employees are morale.

Loews lag many years behind its rival Home Depot, but they are working differently. Its pulling back some of its marketing, but its not completely dropping sales events, and its probably sensing market share opportunities.

Affordability is more important than ever, said a Law spokesman. Placer.ai has discovered that Lowe traffic is increasing.

Home Depot, which spent $ 111 billion last year, and Loews, with $ 72 billion in revenue, rushed over the past few weeks to curb order automation and automation at nearly every US store, reducing sales losses. Home Depot, in particular, is a strong e-commerce powerhouse, with digital sales up 20% in the last quarter. Loews is far behind, but its completely overhauling e-commerce.

Joel Rampoldt, Managing Partner at Alix Partners, said:

Drive-up and curbside pickups offer shoppers additional options, but although they werent planning on buying one, theyd be better off with the impulsive sales that happened in the store, such as pillows in a cart while walking. It has an adverse effect.

Home decoration is a kind of impulse category. Home Depot recently set out to increase revenue per customer visit. Despite its sharp increase in sales since the last recession, it has not opened many new stores. We didnt need it: Sales per square foot increased 63% between 2009 and 2010 to $ 454.82.

So far, in the six weeks following the pandemic in the United States, analysts say there has been a relative increase in demand for home improvement retailers. Home appliances sell well and people seem to focus on refurbishing, as many other costs such as travel and restaurants have been reduced.

Large do-it-yourself projects will really thrive at the expense of vacation, says Lampot.

Of course, blockades can affect projects that require expert expertise. Restrictions may limit the renovation of apartment buildings or you may not want to invite others to your home. About 46% of Home Depots business is from professionals and 20% is from Lowes.

Still, eliminating the meltdown in the housing market, these stores have a tailwind. A massive wave of mortgages could mean increased maintenance and remodeling activity as historic low interest rates spurred, Bloomberg Intelligence wrote in a report this week in a survey. I am.

So far, FIT Cohan confirms the result that people are investing in their own homes.

-Retailers with the best shopping tech come to the top after the pandemic recedes What kind of refund do you have? This is how the industry handles things-How Starbucks is preparing to reopen US stores-How T.J.Maxx and Ross will [eventually] get even stronger from a pandemic-Listen to Leadership Next, examine the CEOs evolving role in a Fortune podcast. Watch: The best modern design

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How Home Depot and Lowe are preparing for the renovation season of a busy home amid coronavirus uncertainty - gotech daily