Residence Depot (HD) has lately been taking daring steps to battle a regarding sample of buyer habits in shops.
In its second-quarter earnings report for 2025, Residence Depot revealed that its U.S. comparable gross sales elevated by 1.4% year-over-year. Nevertheless, current knowledge from Placer.ai discovered that buyer visits on the retailer’s same-store places decreased by 2.6%, in comparison with the identical quarter final 12 months.
The lower in client demand comes throughout a time when the common 30-year mortgage fee continues to hover over 6%, which has had a major domino impact on the housing market. Many shoppers are laying aside buying new properties as costs enhance.
Based on a current report from the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors, existing-home gross sales dropped by 0.2% month-over-month in August, whereas the median existing-home gross sales worth spiked to $422,600, which is 2% larger than what it was in August final 12 months.
“Existing home sales remained sluggish through July and early August as mortgage rates stayed elevated,” mentioned Ruben Gonzalez, chief economist at Keller Williams, in a press release to TheStreet. “With rates declining recently, sales should get a lift in September and October.”
Throughout an earnings name final month, Residence Depot executives flagged that prospects are persevering with to place off funding bigger discretionary house enchancment tasks, akin to lavatory or kitchen remodels, as a consequence of common financial uncertainty.
“Our customers still tell us that the rate environment is giving them pause on larger remodeling projects that would typically require debt financing,” mentioned Residence Depot Chief Monetary Officer Richard McPhail throughout the name.
Residence Depot is noticing that prospects are avoiding tackling massive house enchancment tasks.
Picture supply: Getty Pictures
Residence Depot launches a brand new instrument to reverse regarding buyer habits
To assist encourage prospects to tackle these tasks, particularly after beforehand asserting worth will increase in shops, Residence Depot lately launched a brand new digital instrument for its Professional prospects (residential and industrial skilled contractors).
The retailer has launched its new Challenge Planning instrument, which is “designed to streamline how professional renovators, remodelers and specialty tradespeople plan, manage and execute complex projects,” mentioned Residence Depot in a press launch despatched to TheStreet.
The instrument permits prospects to handle “every phase” of their house enchancment tasks by way of a single provider whereas giving them entry to all of Residence Depot’s product assortment in shops and achievement facilities.
Associated: Residence Depot seals billion-dollar acquisition to win again buyers
By utilizing the instrument, prospects can create supplies lists, monitor and handle orders, personalize supply preferences, and achieve visibility on early pricing and stock availability.
The Challenge Planning instrument additionally has a multi-user collaboration function, which permits a number of prospects engaged on the identical challenge to remain updated on supplies, deliveries, invoicing and extra.
If prospects want additional help, they will even use the instrument to collaborate with Residence Depot associates in actual time.
“Our Project Planning tool makes it easier than ever for our Pro customers to plan, purchase and monitor the status of their complex projects – all backed by the full power of The Home Depot’s product assortment and expertise,” mentioned Mike Rowe, Residence Depot government vp of Professional, within the press launch. “The average Pro works with 10 or more suppliers on a single job. We’re in a unique position to simplify this process and will continue to expand our digital tools to meet the evolving needs of Pros.”
Residence Depot bets large on Professional prospects to repair weak gross sales
The discharge of Residence Depot’s Challenge Planning instrument comes shortly after it closed its $5.5 billion acquisition of GMS, a serious distributor of constructing merchandise akin to drywall, ceilings, metal framing, and many others., to spice up its professional enterprise.
The deal closed final month, and it goals to offer Professional prospects entry to extra achievement and repair choices that enable them to finish their tasks extra shortly with much less friction.
Extra Retail:
- Temu makes daring transfer to decelerate fleeing prospects
- Lululemon CEO raises crimson flag about buyer habits in shops
- Residence Depot seals billion-dollar acquisition to win again buyers
Through the earnings name final month, Billy Bastek, government vp of merchandising at Residence Depot, mentioned that the corporate will probably be doubling down on making the shopper expertise easier to draw extra buyers.
“We know that as we remove friction from the experience, we (will) see incremental customer engagement,” mentioned Bastek.
“We additionally proceed to put money into enhancing search performance leveraging AI, and enhanced our purchase it once more capabilities, permitting prospects to simply and conveniently reorder merchandise no matter the place the unique buy occurred. Through the second quarter, we leaned into merchandise and tasks which might be resonating with our prospects, and we proceed to deal with innovation to ship the most effective worth proposition for house enchancment tasks whereas enhancing the shopper expertise.”
Associated: Lowe’s struggles to repair a regarding buyer drawback
