Nearly seven million Lowe's shoppers have become active users of the MyLowe's customer engagement tool, which serves as everything from an organizer for appliance warranties to an inspirational online space for home improvement and renovation projects.
"MyLowe's is not a separate channel, it's a tool to help the consumer when they're shopping to be able to manage and maintain anything around their home, to help bring some greater simplicity, a little bit of organization to that entire process," explained Lowe's CEO Robert Niblock during a recent conference call with financial analysts.
"We're up to about 18 million or so unique swipes on MyLowe's card and almost seven million of them have gone out and registered, set up a profile and done something out there beyond just swiping their card to track their purchase," said Niblock.
MyLowe's serves multiple functions for customers. "They can set up reminders of things that they need to do around their home. They can set up shopping lists for future projects," said Niblock. "They can load pictures out there and start building just kind of from an envisioning or inspiration standpoint what they want to do with another project down the road. Anything to do with their warranties, owner's manuals, those type of things, it organizes all that. So if you think about anything you have to do as a homeowner to kind of maintain and organize your home, we provide a vehicle for the customer."
Niblock added that the retailer is seeing "great receptivity from the consumer," and it is reflected in the retailer's e-commerce growth. "We had a great year last year. Sales of e-commerce were up over 50%. Conversion rate was up, and we also dramatically expanded the number of items that we have on Lowes.com, we're over 600,000 now."
The retailer is planning a website re-platforming that will improve search capabilities. "When you type in search today, the results are still wider than what's ideal for the customers," said Niblock. "So we're working to try and improve the experience, and I think all of that helps drive more sales."