Forgive me if this sounds archaic: home improvement is still a man’s world. Despite the fact that many “Honey-Do” lists are evolving into “Honey-I-Can-Do” mantras thanks to the increasing influence of Pinterest, blogs, and an age of “look what I did” D-I-Y social sharing, the female segment in the home improvement category is still trailing her male counterparts.
Case in point: the Home Depot upswing. The retailer’s 7% comp store sales increases in Q4 2012 eclipsed the 1.9% increase posted by rival Lowe’s. Home Depot’s stock has also become a star performer as of late, recently reaching a 52 week high, once again outpacing Lowe’s. With the housing market and our Happiness Score – a leading indicator of key economic markers, including housing starts – perking up, it seems that
So what’s wrong with Lowe’s?
This might not be quite such a predicament for Lowe’s if it dominated customer share among females, but this percentage generally lags that of females shopping Home Depot. Over the past 12 months, the percentage of females shopping Home Depot most often outweighed those shopping Lowe’s by an average of 7%, though it’s worth noting that this difference has narrowed to about 3% in the past six months. Among the more lucrative male segment, this gap is even wider with men shopping Home Depot most often outpacing Lowe’s male loyalists by an average of about 18% over the past year.
However, Lowe’s still possesses several positives, according to its current shoppers. Among both male and female patrons, customer service, in-store experience, store appearance, and store layout were shopping motivators more likely to be cited than with their Home Depot-minded counterparts.
Further, according to the Net Promoter Score* (NPS®) metric of customer loyalty and satisfaction used for this analysis, Lowe’s male shoppers maintain a NPS® that is more than double the overall average for shoppers in home improvement category (“average”). The NPS® for Lowe’s females is even more impressive – TRIPLE the overall average. While the NPS® among Home Depot shoppers is well above average, too, it’s not quite as elevated as the NPS® tallied for Lowe’s. With Lowe’s shoppers feeling more compelled to recommend this retailer to family, friends, and others, the bonds of loyalty to Lowe’s may be a bit stronger than those for Home Depot.
Collectively, these insights seem to echo Aesop’s Tortoise and the Hare fable. The Hare, er Home Depot, may be charging ahead to the finish line currently, but if Lowe’s can capture those much-needed male shoppers and capitalize on its non-location benefits and customer loyalty, in the long run, this Tortoise might just end up in the lead.
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*Net Promoter, NPS and Net Promoter Score are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld