More big numbers from Home Depot and Lowe's
Home Depot and Lowe’s provided more evidence this week that home improvement is the leading cause of statistics. Both companies produced record-breaking results for the three months and full year ended Jan. 31.
Here are some additional highlights that emerged from the company’s earnings calls.
• $21.9 billion: The increase in full year sales at Home Depot in 2020. “At the beginning of the year, I would have never thought it possible for the business to grow over $21 billion in 2020,” said Home Depot CEO Craig Menear. “For context, it took us 19 years as a company to achieve the first $20 billion in total sales, and we outgrew that in this year alone.”
• 28.6%: Fourth-quarter U.S. comp-store sales increase at Lowe’s. For the fourth consecutive quarter, Lowe's comps surpassed Home Depot comps (25.0%).
Performance highlights from Lowe’s:
• Plus 30% comps were achieved by building materials (fueled by strong demand for roofing and gutters); seasonal and outdoor living, lawn and garden and paint.
• All Fifteen merchandising departments generated positive comps of more than 16% in the fourth quarter
• Lowes.com saw sales growth of 121% in the fourth quarter -- the third straight quarter of triple-digit comps online. Also during the quarter: “We continued to enhance the user experience as we simplified the search and checkout features to speed up the process for customers shopping online,” said Bill Boltz, Lowe’s executive VP of merchandising.
• Lowe’s has BOPIS lockers in more than 1,200 stores. “2020 changed the way the customers shop with Lowe’s,” said Joe McFarland, executive VP stores. “And with roughly 60% of these online orders fulfilled in our stores, we needed to dramatically expand our fulfillment capabilities to support this increased demand.”
Performance highlights from The Home Depot:
• All 40 markets posted double-digit comp-store sales gains in the fourth quarter. Lumber and indoor garden departments led all categories in the fourth quarter.
• For the quarter, sales leveraging digital platforms increased about 83% compared to the prior year. About 55% of online orders were fulfilled through a store. Those numbers are similar to the full-year stats – 86% and 60%, respectively.
“During fiscal 2020, homedepot.com had more than 3.6 billion visits and our conversion rate increased double digits across all platforms, including our app, mobile and desktop, “ said Ted Decker, president and chief operating officer.
• Big ticket transactions ($1,000 or more) were up 23% in the quarter. Average ticket increased 10.8% in the quarter. Comp transactions were up 12.6%.
