Key Strategies of Lowe’s Companies Inc.

Lowe’s Companies Inc.

Serving clients is the foundation of the Lowe’s Companies Inc. strategy. The company’s vision statement serves as its compass: Delivering the finest service, value, and home improvement goods to every market and neighborhood we serve. In order to meet every demand in the home, the company’s Total Home Strategy offers a broad range of commodities and services to both professionals and clients. Giving customers one of the most client-prioritized retail memories in the industry is the cornerstone of this strategy.

Marvin Ellison unveiled a three-year tactical strategy in 2018, shortly after assuming leadership of Lowe’s Companies Inc. Within the initial 12 to 18 months, the company focused on bolstering retail essentials, including its marketing operations, supply network and client interaction. He unveiled the business’ “Total Home” strategy, realizing the company has a bigger opportunity to provide a “total home solution” for both its main DIY clients and its expanding ranks of corporate clients in the wake of the pandemic. In addition to that, he assured customers that every Lowe’s location will offer everything required to fix and enhance the home, across all decoration segments, as well as the recently announced eCommerce website Lowe’s.com and Lowe’s for Professionals platform. All of these would be supported by a robust service element, which would include prompt doorstep delivery and installation services.

Marketing Strategy of Lowe’s Companies Inc.

It’s no surprise that Lowe’s Companies Inc. needs to overtake Home Depot as the first place customers turn to for their home requirements if the “Total Home” plan is to succeed in capturing market share.

Marisa Thalberg, the recently recruited executive vice president of marketing and branding, was a huge help in that regard. Ad Age could not help but notice her phenomenal marketing efforts throughout 2020. It positioned the company as No. 3 on its list of “Marketers of the Year.” Lowe’s Companies Inc. was the only retail firm to make the list that year. An early campaign honoring frontline employees who went the extra mile to offer “necessities” during the global epidemic, a Halloween program providing curbside trick-or-treating for households reluctant to go door-to-door, and an unconventional New York Fashion Week partnership to establish Lowe’s as a fashionable home decor destination are just a few of the marketing campaigns that caught people’s attention.

Progressing ahead, the company is seeing “home” as a place for residing, developing, sharing, and loving rather than just the “house” and the physical infrastructures that go into creating, sustaining, and beautifying it.

The global epidemic altered how individuals interacted with their homes, creating new opportunities for the company to interact with customers. According to Bill Boltz, senior vice president of merchandising at Lowe’s, “it was certainly a ‘do-it-yourself’ year, as customers embraced home remodeling to recapture sentiments of normalcy and establish a sense of serenity. We’re dedicated to assisting our customers in developing enduring emotional connections with their homes in addition to functional ones, he further added.

Acquisition of customer’s perception of home improvement

In the latter part of 2020, Lowe’s embarked on a survey with 2,000 adults about the potential for their homes this year in order to comprehend how its customers are living and, consequently, the core and unique requirements their homes.

The company views the previous year’s phenomenal rise in all things home as a “launchpad for a completely new and everlasting relationship between clients and their living spaces,” with sales likely to increase by over 20% by fiscal year’s end.

Boltz adds that improvements that started in 2020 will persist, even gather up steam in 2021 as individuals get new confidence in the DIY house improvements they can take on, following the epidemic year that generated immense potential in the home area.

Below 40% of the company’s clients reported using a new type of equipment for the first time in 2020. The same consumers also reported beginning hobbies that include tools, woodworking, metalworking, or home improvement. This survey information showed the need of the company to expand its range of inventories and services offered, which Lowe’s has channeled a lot of investment in.

Creation and acceleration of the company’s e-commerce business activities

The company has channeled a lot of investments into the creation of its online website platform. The global pandemic affected the perception of a lot of people. During and after the pandemic, people embraced the action of shopping for products and services online via e-commerce websites. In order to survive in this fast-developing technology era, the company has made provisions for an e-commerce website www.lowes.com 

In addition to that, it has also developed the website to accommodate millions of users at the same time. Lowe’s has also ensured the addition of a large variety of products to ensure customers always find what they’re seeking to purchase, in order to achieve customer satisfaction, retaining and better customer online experience. Lowe’s website has more work to do. In 2020, there were 1.5 billion visitors visited lowes.com in total, a 49% increase, whereas the company’s rival’s  e-commerce website homedepot.com had a 55% increase in visitors. According to SimilarWeb, Home Depot increased its advantage to 2.6 billion visits as a result.

However, lowes.com saw that its users were spending more time on the website, visiting more pages while they were there, and leaving the site less frequently. Although the company doesn’t disclose online sales, it did admit that they increased by triple digits during the third quarter of 2020, when the business reported a boost in comparable sales of 30.1%.

Ellison and his team will continue to prioritize online e-commerce as its capabilities advance.

Expansion of installation services

As mentioned earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic had a very massive effect on a lot of things and people. During the course of the lockdown, a lot of families encountered damages to their properties. These damages ranged from minor faults to faults of great gravity.

A popular adage says “a stitch in time saves nine” and owing to the fact that a lot of people lacked experience in the repairs of minor faults, these faults graduated into something of great gravity. In Lowe’s , customers are taken as priority, the company has provided investments to expand its installation services in order to cater for the needs of its customers effectively, efficiently, and rapidly.

Drive Localization

Even as technology is fast rising and there’s a high demand for e-commerce shopping, a lot of people still embrace shopping at physical infrastructures. The company has noticed this and it is making a lot of investments in creating more physical infrastructures I.e retail outlets. Using this strategy, the company plans to drive localization by making stores available and easily accessible within close range of consumers. In addition to that, the company has made plans to ensure the creation of retail outlets in locations that are densely populated. Doing this, it’s stores will acquire more visits from customers and likewise, generate more revenue.

Diversification

Asides expanding its range of products and services, Lowe’s has also expanded its company to other subsidiaries. These subsidiaries generate revenue of the company. Some of the subsidiaries include, Rona, Inc., Central Wholesalers, Maintenance Supply Headquarters, and so on.

Canadian store Rona, Inc. (stylized as RONA) sells goods and services for building and home renovation. The 1939-founded company runs both company-owned and franchised retailers under a variety of banners, including Rona, its big box formats Rona Home & Garden (Rona L’Entrepôt in Quebec) and Réno-Dépôt, as well as miniature brands like Rona Cashway, Marcil Centre de Rénovation, Moffatt & Powell, and Dick’s Lumber. Rona was purchased by American retailer Lowe’s for $3.2 billion CAD in May 2016.