Home Depot

• Home Depot operates in the United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and Mexico
• The total in-store sales for all regions were $99.65 billion in 2018. (calculated)
• The total online sales for all regions were 7.9% of the total net sales, which equals to $8.55 billion (calculated).
• Homedepot.com had 131.5 million visits in October 2019, while the average online traffic from May 2019 to October 2019 was 147.25 million visits (calculated).
• The average visit duration for the Homedepot.com website is 4 minutes and 44 seconds.
• The largest portion of the online traffic is from the United States and makes 95.34% of all traffic to the website.

Costco

• Costco operates worldwide and has warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Spain, Iceland, and France.
• The total in-store sales for all regions were $132.9 billion in 2018. (calculated)
• Costco has e-commerce websites in the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Taiwan and Korea.
• The online sales for all regions are estimated to be around 4% of the total net sales, which equals to $5.54 billion in 2018. (calculated)
• Costco.com had 53.7 million visits in October 2019, while the average online traffic from May 2019 to October 2019 was 54.08 million visits (calculated).
• The average visit duration for the Costco.com website is 4 minutes and 24 seconds.
• The largest portion of the online traffic is from the United States and makes 97.02% of all traffic to the website.

Research Strategy

Amazon

• Amazon total in-store sales for all regions was $17.224 billion in 2018.
• The total sales through its online channel was $122.987 billion in 2018.
• Amazon.com is ranked the 14th most visited website in the world and 4th most visited in the U.S.
• Amazon.com had 2.15 million visits in October 2019 with the majority of its online visitors from the United States. The U.S. represents 78.77% of Amazon.com total online visitors.
• The average visit for the website was 6 minutes 46 seconds.

Walmart

• Walmart had online sales of $16 billion in 2018.
• The company generated $484.343 billion from their in-store sales. (calculated)
• Walmart.com is ranked the 96th most visited website in the world and 23rd most visited website in the U.S.
• Walmart.com had 307.86 million visitors in October 2019. Majority of its online visitors were from the U.S., representing 93.67% of the online traffic.
• Visitors spent an average of 4 minutes, 16 seconds on the website.

Dollar General

• In 2018, Dollar General in-store sales was $23.9 billion.
• Dollar General online sales for 2018 was $1.7 billion. (calculated)
• Dollar General had 7.83 million visits in October 2019 with 96.79% of its online visitors from the United States.
• The average stay for Dollargeneral.com was 3 minutes 3 seconds.

Research Strategy

Calculations

Dollar General

Walmart

EXPANDING PICKUP OPTIONS

• "Buy online pickup in store" model is the main way in which big box retailers can differentiate themselves and gain a competitive edge on e-commerce giants like Amazon.
• Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot have all invested in optimizing their physical store layouts to facilitate order pickups. They are expected to continue modifying their locations in this way, with the constant pressure from Amazon to improve their e-commerce models.
• Curbside pickup, an especially popular option among box stores' online customers, allows shoppers to avoid high delivery fees, shorten delivery time, as well as see their order before accepting it.
• Thanks to the advantages of curbside pickup, supermarket chains like Wal-Mart and Target improved their online sales of meat and produce, by 66% and 85% respectively.
• Retailers also benefit as it is easier for them to manage their inventory and the customers are more likely to make additional purchases when they come to pick up their orders.
• To gain an advantage over competitors, large retailers are introducing further innovations in this area, such as in-app directions. Also, Target offers Target Drive Up option, thanks to which customers can have their order loaded directly to their car.
• Overall, 61% of omnichannel retailers surveyed by Shopgate say that expanding "buy online pickup in store" options is their priority.
• Also, 63% of shoppers want to use curbside pickup, 56% are interested in having their order loaded into the trunk of their car, and 50% admitted that they made an online purchase only because there was an option to pick it in the store.

PERSONALIZATION

• Personalization is a top priority for customers. 70% are discouraged when they are treated impersonally, 63% would provide personal data to get personalized offers and discounts, and 47% will shop at Amazon if the website they are browsing doesn't show relevant recommendations.

• According to Forbes, offering a personalized shopping experience is a must for retailers, if they want to succeed in the highly competitive digital environment.
• The same article claims that big retailers, like Ikea, Nordstrom, Target, and Wal-Mart have already realized that and started to adjust their strategies accordingly.
• For example, last year, Wal-Mart revamped their website, which now shows more relevant recommendations, based both on the personal browsing history and items that are trending locally.
• For box stores, personalization across all of their channels is another way to gain a competitive advantage over their main competitors. Experts believe that major e-commerce players like Amazon and Walmart mastered it on their websites, but they are behind in terms of personalizing their mobile and email offers.
• Some big box retailers, such as Nordstrom, Home Depot and Best Buy, capitalize on it by offering a superior mobile experience in terms of personalization.
• The same three large retailers scored the highest among the box stores in the latest Retail Personalization Index by Sailthru.
• Home Depot was applauded for leveraging product and customer data, as well as their heavy investments in email personalization, while Best Buy got noticed for the use of AI in their email marketing and for innovative features, such as "On My Way," which informs sales personnel when a customer is coming to pick up an online order.
• Overall, multiple experts agree that personalization is the key element of online retail experience, and will continue to be in the future.

THE RISE OF PRIVATE LABEL

• In early 2019, Retail Dive predicted that it would be the year of the growth in the online sales of private label products.
• It was observed that main competitors in the e-commerce space are launching more private-label brands, with Target alone adding eight in the last year.
• Major big box stores are at the forefront because it's another way to gain an edge on e-commerce only players like Amazon.
• Nielsen also believes that private label is growing as a category. The company thinks that in the US, e-commerce is boosting this trend by offering grocery retailers new ways to compete and differentiate.
• Wal-Mart holds a 48% share of CPG online private label revenue, compared to a 27% share two years ago.
• At the same time, according to the report by CBInsights, Wal-Mart has been seeing high online conversions from its private-label products.
• Overall, Wal-Mart has the highest number of private-label units sold among all online retailers. Target and Costco are two other box stores in the top ten.
• It is important to note that customers are interested in more private label products, with 8 in 10 buying them to save money and 44% wanting more unique options in this category.
• While experts believe that it's easier to sell private-label products online, with more options to advertise and recommend them, retailers, including box stores, are still learning how to use it to their advantage.

RESEARCH STRATEGY