February 2, 2006

After Wal-Mart, Home Depot is the second-largest retailer in the U.S., with annual revenue of $80 billion. So when Home Depot talks B2B and eBusiness strategy, other retailers should listen carefully.

And strategy was very much on the agenda at a recent investor conference during which Home Depot detailed the plans of its technology investments.

One of the big themes for Home Depot is store-level efficiency.

In 2000, Home Depot estimated that its store associates spent fully half of their on non-selling tasks.

By today that is down to 40 percent, and Home Depot wants it to be 30 percent by 2010. AMR points out that Home Depot's investments in vendor Reflexis and its task management technology, and more recently in SAP's Workforce Deployment module, have helped in this regard.

Scheduling and optimizing retail worker time is just one piece of the puzzle. Retailers are also thinking about ways to make shoppers themselves more efficient -- for example, by providing self-checkout (now a staple in several high-volume retail environments) and in-store kiosks.

AMR points out that Home Depot now has 1,200 stores equipped with self-checkout , plans for 15,000 kiosks, and is "increasing its investment in contact centers to help consumers with the research component of their buying."

The bottom line is that shoppers can learn more about products, and even buy them, without involving store associates at every turn.

These are all examples of what AMR characterizes as aggressive e-business spending, particularly at the store level. With all the emphasis on RFID, a lot of retail e-business talk and mindshare has moved away from the stores and back into the supply chain, so this is a good time to remember that retailers themselves haven't forgotten the point of sale.

Finally, says AMR, "if you're thinking this won't affect you if you don't directly compete with The Home Depot, think again -- it has plans to open at least four convenience stores and fuel stations in 2006."

Source: Line 56