Home Depot Builds New Supply Chain
Home Depot will spend $1.2 billion to overhaul its supply chain to offer faster delivery for consumers and businesses. Walker Sands’ 2018 Future of Retail report offers the home improvement retailer some advice:
- To compete with Amazon, Home Depot should focus not only on delivery speed, but transparency as well. Only 30 percent of consumers surveyed for the report rate retailers’ communication with them about the status of their online order as "excellent," compared to the 42 percent who say the same about Amazon.
- Home Depot should also consider third-party delivery. Twenty-five percent of consumer respondents say they would trust a third-party delivery service to deliver tools and home improvement products they ordered from a retailer.
It’s a smart move for Home Depot to meet consumer demand, notes recent data from Astound Commerce:
- Half of shoppers specifically hunt for retailers and brands with free shipping.
- Sixty-three percent of shoppers consider free shipping "highly important" when purchasing online, and 19 percent of shoppers are dissuaded from online purchases when they don’t know the shipping time frame.