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View Full Version : Home Depot Adjusting For Baby Boomers



Kathianne
12-10-2015, 11:10 PM
Even though millennials now outnumber baby boomers they are not buying homes in great numbers. On the other hand, seems baby boomers are mostly over DIY. Interesting:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/12/09/home-depot-looks-to-adapt-for-baby-boomers-who-arent-so-into-do-it-yourself-anymore/


Home Depot looks to adapt for baby boomers who aren’t so into ‘do-it-yourself’ anymore

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Home Depot says it is confident that millennials will eventually take the plunge and buy a home, and that when they do, its research has found they will have the do-it-yourself ethos that their parents had in their younger years. For now, though, executives said they typically see millennial customers spring for items such as paint and window treatments — the kinds of things that can spruce up a home without violating a rental agreement.


To connect with those customers, Home Depot is also looking to beef up its digital business, which today accounts for only 5.1 percent of its total sales. As with many of its bricks-and-*mor*tar counterparts, the chain is racing to open fulfillment centers so it can get orders to customers more quickly, and has moved to offer a much wider range of merchandise online than it can fit in its stores. It is also shifting its advertising strategy, with plans to spend more on digital marketing this year than on print and television.


Overall, it seems that the cautious consumer mind-set that has been a drag for so many retailers has actually been something of a tail wind for Home Depot. Shoppers have been resisting impulse buys and, instead, have been putting their dollars toward planned, carefully researched purchases. You can see that in Home Depot’s latest earnings results, when it saw a 7.8 percent increase in transactions totaling more than $900, thanks to purchases of items such as appliances, roofing products and countertops. The company said Tuesday that it has seen an increase in big-ticket purchases since the second quarter of 2011.

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