Near the wide aisle that sells home center supplies, lowe’s This Saturday, our littlest shoppers tackled their own do-it-yourself projects.
In a children’s workshop at the company’s North Bergen, New Jersey, store, children as young as 3 were wearing miniature red aprons, the retailer’s signature, and assembling washing machine-themed piggy banks.
Lowe’s is trying to attract a younger audience, but it hasn’t suddenly found an untapped market in home improvement spending by preschoolers. When the company restarted its Kids Club program this month and began handing out lollipops to children who visited its stores, it was actually a step in its strategy to win more business from young parents, especially those who aren’t yet homeowners.
But it’s not just young parents. Lowe’s is hoping to attract new shoppers, Gen Z and Millennials, who are buying homes later than their parents. Other moves to capture peers include adding a wider range of products through third-party marketplaces and leveraging networks of influencers on social media.
The company wants to increase the frequency of visits to its stores and website as the U.S. housing market remains weak, consumers are delaying home purchases until later in life, and rising costs of daily living are causing more people to postpone major purchases or projects like kitchen renovations. The company is adding some of the features through My Lowe’s Rewards, a customer loyalty program for DIY shoppers that it launched two years ago and has grown to more than 30 million members.
“The challenge for us, from a marketing perspective and from a brand-wide perspective, is how do we drive relevance among consumers who are not in the homeowner category or want to be in the homeowner category but can’t afford it,” said Jen Wilson, Lowe’s chief marketing officer.
Lowe’s has relaunched its Kids Club, a free workshop where kids can work on their own do-it-yourself projects. This workshop was recently held at our store in Matthews, North Carolina.
Courtesy of Lowe’s
This has led home improvement retailers to think about “becoming relevant in new ways,” such as adding events and looking for surprising or trending products on TikTok that might grab the attention of potential shoppers, she said.
Children also participate there. She said one of Rowe’s surprising findings from her market research was that children have a strong influence on where parents decide to shop, especially for millennial parents.
Home Depot and Lowe’s stores
Getty Images
postpone the project
As home prices and borrowing costs rise, many Americans are putting off homeownership. Homeownership is a life stage in which people tend to take the plunge and buy paint and hardware, as well as hire home improvement professionals like electricians and plumbers. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median age of first-time homebuyers is now 40 years old, an all-time high.
Sales at home improvement stores have been declining since the coronavirus pandemic. Lowe’s expects total sales to be $86 billion this year. That would be up from $83.7 billion a year ago, but down from each of the previous four years. Lowe’s also expects comparable sales, an industry measure that excludes one-time factors such as store openings and closings, to be flat compared to a year ago.
Compared to rival Home Depot, Lowe’s relies more on DIY shoppers. The company says about 70% of its sales come from such consumers, with the rest coming from home professionals such as contractors, roofers and electricians that homeowners typically hire.
home depotMeanwhile, the company has historically generated about half of its revenue from home professionals and the other half from DIY shoppers.
Lowe’s and Home Depot executives say demand for big-ticket items and more expensive projects is down, blaming lower home turnover and economic uncertainty. Buying and selling homes typically facilitates projects, as homeowners spruce up their homes before selling or make repairs upon move-in.
In the meantime, both companies have focused on attracting more professionals. They tend to be larger and more reliable spenders. In 2024, Home Depot acquired SRS Distribution, a Texas-based company that sells products to landscaping, pool and roofing professionals, for $18.25 billion in the company’s largest acquisition ever. The company also acquired other companies last year, including building materials sales company GMS.
Lowe’s made two professional-focused acquisitions last year. The company acquired Foundation Building Materials, which sells drywall, insulation and other interior construction products to large residential and commercial professionals, and Artisan Design Group, which provides design services and installation of flooring, cabinetry and countertops to home builders and property managers.
But Chuck Grom, a retail analyst at Gordon Haskett Equity Research, said Lowe’s increased reliance on do-it-yourself shoppers could help the company next year. Earlier this month, he raised his rating on the company’s stock from “hold” to “buy,” citing signs of improvement in the housing environment.
While the housing market still faces challenges, furniture sales have rebounded in recent quarters and more consumers appear to be getting used to higher borrowing costs as the “new normal,” Grom said. In the equity research firm’s latest quarterly survey, approximately 35% of consumers said they would be willing to buy a home even at a mortgage interest rate of 5.5% to 6%. This was up from about 25% in the third quarter survey.
The average 30-year mortgage rate has fallen slightly in recent months, hitting about 6.2% last week.
These are encouraging signs that even if the recovery is slow, consumers may venture back into more DIY projects, he said.
Lowe’s stock reflects optimism about next year. The company’s stock has lagged the performance of the S&P 500 index over the past year and five years, but is up about 22% over the past six months. By comparison, Home Depot’s stock price rose about 4% during the same period.
Starting this month, Lowe’s is handing out lollipops in its stores in hopes of attracting more parents and families.
Courtesy of Lowe’s
Laws looks young
One of the key goals of Lowe’s strategy is to give customers more reasons to use the company’s apps, website, and make store visits part of their daily routine, even in between DIY projects.
Amanda Bailey, Lowe’s vice president of customer marketing and loyalty, said the company hopes that with the free lollipops, for example, kids will encourage their parents to stop by the store, where they can buy a few items or make parents feel comfortable lingering as they compare electronics in the aisles.
Lowe’s is also giving shoppers more reasons to join or take advantage of its loyalty program. Customers must sign up for free monthly Kids Club workshops through the program, and children can collect digital badges in their parent loyalty accounts for completing projects. Customers can earn points on their purchases, which become money for MyLowe, an incentive designed to encourage consumers to purchase everyday items such as household cleaning supplies and light bulbs at retail stores.
And Lowe’s plans to expand its children’s workshops for ages 3 to 10 and add more complex projects for older children and teenagers, she said.
The company is also testing other free events for loyalty program members in select stores, including soccer clinics for kids, girls’ nights out with do-it-yourself projects like building terrariums, and family nights out with games and hands-on activities.
“Traditionally, loyalty programs have been about rewarding transactions,” said Bailey, who previously worked on driving loyalty for brands like Hilton and Tory Burch. “So we’re now thinking about how we can engage with our customers at different stages of their lives, different moments in their lives.”
Children participate in the Lowe’s Kids Club at a retail store in Matthews, North Carolina.
Courtesy of Lowe’s
In addition to typical home improvement products, Lowe’s is debuting products that will wow customers and create buzz on social media. Lowe’s merchandising and marketing teams have begun developing a 12-month plan for items the company has the potential to become trending products, with about three to five items debuting each quarter, Wilson said. Loyalty program members can get early or exclusive access to purchase some products, Wilson said.
One of Lowe’s first drops was the brand’s mini buckets, which recently launched in light pink. The Mini Cobalt Toolbox Kit, which comes in a variety of colors, also gained traction on social media, with more customers using it to organize cosmetics and store school supplies.
Lowe’s has other items in the works in hopes of generating buzz. These include scented candles and tote bags launching in the spring, Lowe’s busiest shopping season, and pet-themed advent calendars for the holiday season.
“These are affordable impulse buys and a great way to introduce our brand to consumers who might not otherwise have considered us,” Wilson said.
Lowe’s also launched its Creator Network in June to encourage more influencers to post their do-it-yourself projects and purchases. We also partnered with MrBeast, a well-known social media creator. MrBeast has a storefront on the retailer’s website where customers can purchase their favorite products.
And its marketplace, which launched in late 2024, is a way to add more brands and expand categories.
Gordon Haskett’s Grom said the company’s efforts to win customer loyalty, particularly among younger shoppers, were important, but “we’re not going to change things anytime soon.”
“They’re trying to control what they can control,” he says. “The wind of housing turnover is tough on them right now.”
Home Depot has also made unique moves to attract customers, including launching a new platform for creators late last year and creating a new hub on its website for advice and ideas for new homeowners. It also speeds up delivery to customers. The company said at an investor day in December that more than half of its deliveries are now same-day or next-day, more than triple the number in 2022. The store also offers free children’s workshops.
But as home improvement retailers seek to win over a narrow pool of business, they also compete with independent specialty home improvement stores, privately held Ace Hardware and retail giants such as Walmart and Amazon for the same products.
Although the benefits may not be immediate, the event will play an important role in future competition. For families who came to the Lowe’s Kids Workshop at the North Bergen store on Saturday, the activity was a welcome way to spend a snowy day and get kids working with their hands.
Yvette Crisostomo, a mother from Fort Lee, New Jersey, brought her 3-year-old son, Kai, to the workshop. She coordinated with two friends who brought their children.
“It’s like a play date for everyone,” she says. “It also gives him confidence.”
As the event concluded, the goals of Lowe’s strategy became clear. After completing the project, many parents browsed the aisles. Crisostomo says he sometimes ends up shopping.
“My eyes wander. If I need something, I come to Loews,” she said.
