Home Depot Catches up on Internet Sales
As of this month, when shoppers find their local store on its website, they see new information including whether the store provides key cutting or tool rental. They also see the store manager’s name, as well as the in-store layout. Item searches yield how many items are in stock at the nearest stores. “We know we were behind folks like Amazon.com,” said Hal Lawton, Home Depot’s HD +0.31% president of online. “We’ve put a stake in the ground. We want to catch up and then get ahead. We certainly are not going to lose share.”
Like other retailers, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer says it’s expanding in the online channel aggressively and targeting it as a major growth opportunity. Home Depot has made its biggest e-commerce investment over the past two years since it started Internet sales in 2001. An important part of the company’s $370 million in planned annual IT spending over the next three to four years will be online, including mobile, the company said, declining to elaborate.
(As reported in MarketWatch.com)