Company Overview: Home Depot

Home Depot’s retail strategy is one of reasons for its fast growth and continued leadership in the home improvement retailer industry. Its focus on speed, efficiency, and quality has made it one of the largest retailers in the world. Home Depot focuses on being a leader in “product authority.” Walmart and Costco are leaders

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

This allows Home Depot to better utilize resources by targeting demographic categories that are likely to be interested in home improvement or contracting services. Home Depot advertises a low price guarantee, including beating competitors’ prices by 10% (The Home Depot, 2016). Home Depot’s current marketing slogan is “More Saving, More Doing”. Home Depot markets to both the inexperienced homeowner as well as contractors for its products and services. The company’s marketing strategy, slogan, and price match guarantee all fit the current corporate strategy of growth through increasing sales at existing retail locations and online to both contractors and homeowners. As an organization within an industry where low price is likely necessary due to lack of differentiation, Home Depot’s marketing strategy focused on low price is necessary. The low-cost without focus strategy at the business level is also aligned with this marketing focus. Since Home Depot is looking to gain customers in the broader market, focusing on both do-it-yourself customers and contractors is

Retailing building supply stores have become a popular retail industry sector due to increased public awareness and the need of many homeowners for the home improvement products. Back in the 1970s, long before warehouse stores ruled home improvement land, do-it-yourselfers shopped at “home centers.” These 30,000 square foot stores offered cheaper prices and wider selection of products, about 25,000 more than local hardware stores and eliminated the extra trip to the lumberyard. The dependence of many of these retailers upon the homebuilding industry for much of their business has also been reduced and the warehouse superstores, such as Home Depot, have become more important. The smaller companies in the

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

Lowe’s serve DIY customers and also provides installation services and other services such as electricians, painters, plumbers and landscapers. Average Lowe’s has two kinds of stores, a 117,000 square-foot and the other one is a 94,000 square –foot. This remodeling of the stores layout was done in 1980s, after the arrival and success of the biggest rival “Home Depot”. A typical Lowe’s store carries approximately 40,000 items. These items include other brands too such as allen + roth, Kobalt and Utilitech. Lowe’s product line includes products for home decoration, house maintenance, repairing, remodeling & redesigning, and constructing a new house or office. Items that may not be available in the stores are still available to customers by placing special orders. The installation services of Lowe’s are available for more than 40 product categories. Installation services contribute to the net sale too with the greatest sales coming in flooring, millwork, and

When disaster strikes, The Home Depot is among the first organizations on the scene to ensure its customers have the supplies, resources and support they need to rebuild their homes and communities.

The idea for Home Depot was dreamed up by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank in 1978 while seating in a coffee shop (The Home Is Where Our Story Begins, 2016). They wanted to create a superstore that was catered to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) people, providing a large variety of merchandise at decent prices and highly trained staff to help with any questions or concerns (The Home Is Where Our Story Begins, 2016). In 1979, Marcus and Blank opened the first two Home Depot stores in Atlanta where they blew the competition out of the water with 60,000 square-foot warehouses (The Home Is Where Our Story Begins, 2016). Not only did they have more items than any other hardware store, but they had expertly trained floor associates who were in charge of selling and giving advice on how to complete their home projects (The Home Is Where Our Story Begins, 2016). Since those two stores have opened, Home Depot has grown to include over 2,200 stores in three different countries: United States, Canada and Mexico (The Home Is Where Our Story Begins,

With almost 2,300 locations, the Home Depot is stilling growing at a rapid rate and shows no chances of slowing down. They are constantly changing and improving their products for their customers as well as themselves. The Home Depot is heavily reliant on home improvement and the growing economy. The Home Depot hopes to keep up with the current growing economy and continue to dominate the retailing industry.

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

The Home Depot has the variety in products and services, as well as the knowledge and ability to show you how.

Home Depot stores sell a wide assortment of building materials, home improvement and garden products. Twenty-six EXPO Design Center stores sell products and services primarily for design and renovation projects. Additionally, the company operates four Villager’s Hardware test stores, which offer products for home enhancement