A Summary On Home Depot

Home Depot is a leader in the home improvement retailer industry. While many companies are falling behind Amazon and Walmart, Home Depot continues to beat its earnings estimates and attract investors. This part of the report will analyze the core competencies, strengths, and weaknesses of Home Depot to give insight into its recent successes and interpret possible downfalls.

The Home Depot’s two main customers are at home “do-it-yourselfers” and contractors. The main products and services offered help solve the wants and needs of customers involved with home construction and maintenance,

The growing trend of home improvement has perpetuated a larger demand for box store home improvement shops such as Home Depot and Lowe’s. There are several types of companies that contribute to the booming renovation industry. Home Depot and Lowe’s provide all the

Home Depot’s corporate-level strategy is one of internal growth. This conclusion was reached based on the increased focus that Home Depot has placed on growing its existing online and traditional retail operations. Between 2016 and 2018, Home Depot is expected to invest approximately four billion dollars into improvements in its online and physical retail locations in order to make both work more synergistically and grow sales (Petro, 2016). Home Depot hopes that these investments will continue to increase sales at both its physical and digital retail locations, thereby growing the company without adding significant numbers of physical locations.

From its roots as a vision in 1978 of a home improvement superstore The Home Depot has become a giant in this sector. Influenced by the “do-it-yourself” customer or the corporate contractors each policy and business plan is developed with a consumer stake holder emphasis. As its founders stated “We’re in the people business” (Planning), and this is maintained in its business structure today. Set up as a direct to consumer warehouse of home improvement and building products

Home Depot is the fastest growing retailer in the U.S. by some accounts. It has a fascinating history of innovation and entrepreneurship. The company had some difficulties in the mid-2000s that some attribute to cultural clashes. However, during this period the company was able to take full advantage of the housing boom. Yet when the bubble burst, Home Depot was forced to claim substantial losses. Despite these loses Home Depot has weathered the storm fairly well and is in prime position to take advantage of an economic recovery; if it ever comes.

While Lowes and Home Depot follow similar differentiation and low cost strategies, there are a few differences in marketing due to the fact that Lowes seems to be more targeted towards women with bright and colorful displays, wide aisles and product stacking that is lower and easier to reach (Clemons, 2012). While this is a calculated decision because women make 80% of home improvement decisions, it may distract from growth in the contractor business since the vast majority of home improvement professionals are men. The advantage shifts toward Home Depot since men also spend thirty five percent more than women on home improvement supplies therefore, attracting men may actually be more efficient in terms of return of investment (Goodfellow, 2013). The ability to quickly locate products and return to work is a tremendous advantage for contractors who would prefer to be on the job instead of leisurely strolling the aisles of a store while examining multitudes of options. This may be a major component of Home Depot’s rebound since they derive a larger percentage of their sales from professionals and the rebounding housing markets and rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Sandy have introduced significant cash flow into the industry (Cheng, 2013).

The Home Depot knows that they must stay on top of technology and management must be able to organize this function in a way that surpasses the competition, pleases the customers, and keep the employees satisfied.

Home Depot company offer a wide range of merchandise and services, and serve three primary customer groups: do-it-yourself customers, do-it-for-me customers and professional customers. A classic Home Depot store stocks approximately 40,000 to 50,000 product items, including variations in color and size. Major product groups include building materials, lumber plumbing, electrical and kitchen; hardware and seasonal, and paint, flooring and wall coverings. To balance the national brand name products it offers, the Company has formed strategic associations with vendor partners to market products under brand names that are only offered through The Home Depot. “As of fiscal

The home improvement sector of the economy is large with two major players in the industry and with many smaller local and regional competitors. These two major competitors are Home Depot and Lowe’s. These two companies account for over $110 billion in total sales each year. Even though sales have gone down over the past few years due to the downturn in the economy they have not gone down nearly as much as home sales and this is due to more people deciding to do more home improvements to their own home then buying a new home. Both of these companies have been able to keep up sales and increase them year over year by improving current

SWOTT AnalysisStrengths (internal)The Home Depot is a large organization that focuses on two major buying segments. The self employed general contractor who can go to The Home Depot for all their buying needs and secondly the weekend warriors. Those would be the average working person who likes to do things and build things themselves. This has been a strength and staple for The Home Depot from its infancy as an organization.

The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is a home improvement, construction products and services retailer operating over 2,000 big-box stores in the United States and abroad. The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank with the vision of one-stop shopping for do-it-yourself (DIY) customers, installation services for do-it-for-me (DIFM) customers and competitive products for the professional market. Their DIFM installation programs include products such as carpeting, flooring, cabinets, countertops, and water heaters. In addition, the company provides installation of various professional products like generators and HVAC systems.

Home Depot and Lowe's believe in big warehouse space, an informal atmosphere and low prices. They are able to offer the lower prices to consumers due to their purchasing power. Inventory differs depending on the story type, home centers typically sock more lumber and building supplies, as their biggest customers are contractors. They pay their floor employees minimum wage, and keep overall costs down by keeping them as part time employees.

Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer operating in 45 states, Canada, Chili and Puerto Rico. Home Depot stores aim to serve both do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors with home improvement superstores carrying between 40,000 and 50,000 different products. Home Depot has also been listed as one of Fortune's most admired specialty retailers for the past six years. In order for companies to succeed in the competitive current marketplace they must consider not only the bottom line and their investors but also their impacts on the community, their employees, and their customers. Home Depot was founded on the idea that treating employees well is an important responsibility. Home Depot believes employees that are

Home Depot 's target market is individual homeowners/small contractors. Even though the traditional ideology is that cost leadership and product differentiation business strategies are mutually exclusive, Home Depot was successful at using a combination strategy. First, Home Depot optimized the cost leadership strategy by offering low and competitive prices to its customers by emphasizing higher sales volumes with lower margins, while instituting a high inventory turnover. Home Depot successfully offered a warehouse product strategy to the individual consumer for the first time. Previously, this type of price discounting was only available to professional contractors who earned product price