Home Depot Cozying Up to Female Customers

To attract affluent female shoppers, Home Depot is adding lines of furniture, high-end lighting, and other trendy home decor items.
By: Susan Chandler: REALTOR® Magazine Online
It's not going to be easy to win market share, predicts Steen Kanter, the former president of IKEA U.S. and chief executive of Kanter International, a business-branding firm. "Home Depot is not a natural go-to place for someone who is going to buy these products."

Home Depot will test furniture boutiques inside two or three regular Home Depot stores that open during the next 12 months. Retail chain Expo Design Center-another Home Depot attempt to get a piece of the cocooning phenomenon-fell short because prices were too high and customer service was poor. In the past year, Home Depot has closed 20 of 54 Expos, including three in the Chicago area.

Another factor is Home Depot’s customer service image. Many consumers dread shopping there, turned off by unknowledgeable salespeople, out-of-stock items, and long lines. Home Depot's customer satisfaction rating has fallen so low it now ranks below Kmart, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index compiled by the University of Michigan.