Fast Five Shorts | Buy Or Sell: Lowe’s New Digital Home Platform For Loyalty Members?
In the latest edition of Omni Talk’s Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Avalara, Mirakl, Ownit AI, and Ocampo Capital Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: If They're Buying Or Selling: Lowe’s New Digital Home Platform For Loyalty Members
For the full episode head here:https://youtu.be/HfqxboxZ35Q
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Transcript
Lowe's has debuted a digital home platform for its loyalty members.
Speaker A:According to Retail Touchpoints, Lowe's has introduced a digital home platform that offers members of the retailers My Rewards My Lowe's rewards program free personalized information about the products in their homes, which includes warranties, manuals, maintenance guidelines, how to content, recommended subscriptions, and replacement parts.
Speaker A:While the platform's initial launch focuses on home appliances, the retailer is planning to eventually expand it to include other aspects of home maintenance.
Speaker A:Customers who purchase a major appliance connected to their My Lowe's Rewards account within the past five years will automatically see the appliances displayed in their member profile.
Speaker A:And this was kind of my headline of the week here, or one of my headline picks of this week.
Speaker A:Are you buying or selling Lowe's new digital home platform for its loyalty members?
Speaker B:Look, I, like we've talked about, I just moved into a new house.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're into the home buying situation.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:If I could have, like, I, I get the value of this because we are trying to find like, light bulbs and light switches and all kinds of things here.
Speaker B:But my question is, is this really something that Lowe's should be doing?
Speaker B:Like, is, Is Lowe's the person that should be owning this?
Speaker B:I don't think so.
Speaker B:Like, if I were Lowe's, I feel like I would be looking to your partners who are already managing the home.
Speaker B:So Google Home or Alexa or, you know, what are the other smart systems that are, that people are already buying into because of their TVs, their Ring doorbells, you know, all these other smart home things.
Speaker B:I think Lowe's would be smart to position itself as like a partner within this that integrates into one of those or both of those systems into.
Speaker B:Instead of me having to have another Lowe's app for something like, I, I don't think that that part makes sense because I think, you know, it has to be integrated into something that I'm already using.
Speaker B:I don't see myself, even if I bought all my appliances from Lowe's, I just, I don't see myself going in and like using that on a regular basis because it's not something that I need to access every day.
Speaker B:So I guess if I would, if I were to proceed, I would, I would continue with this path.
Speaker B:I think Lowe's has got a good thing going.
Speaker B:I would add everything though, like all my purch from those, like paint colors, light bulbs, and, you know, my appliances into a larger home management application.
Speaker B:But that's, that's just me.
Speaker B:I know you like this, so explain to Me?
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker A:Well, I don't know.
Speaker A:Actually, I like it less now.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I like it less now because I thought you presented a really cogent argument there.
Speaker A:I think it's.
Speaker A:I think it's your point about who has the right to win in this idea, if it's a good idea, is interesting because, you know, you're not going to make all your purchases at Lowe's, generally speaking, but maybe the.
Speaker A:My.
Speaker A:My Lowe's Rewards members are.
Speaker A:Maybe those are the people that are, like, really in love with Lowe's and they buy all their stuff at Lowe's.
Speaker A:So, you know, if I go down that road, I kind of like the idea, but I don't.
Speaker A:I don't love the idea, but I do think.
Speaker A:I think this is where you're thinking, too, is like, I think it's a good experiment.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But the trick is, of course, like, how do you get people.
Speaker A:How do you get people to use it?
Speaker A:But because if you can't get them to use it, it's going to be a very sticky experience because, like you said, coordinating your warranty and repair information across all your plants is not something easy to do.
Speaker A:And if Lowe's can make that easy for me, and I shop at Lowe's a lot, then there's value there.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:Yeah, and Lowe's should.
Speaker A:Should at least be able to get people to set this up very easily, too, because I think you can incent people to use it to interact with it.
Speaker A:Lowe's can ultimately pipe retail media into it right to it as well.
Speaker A:So I think so from a test perspective, I'm like, why not?
Speaker A:That's what I say.
Speaker A:But I think your question about who has the right to win is really interesting, Chris.
Speaker B:Does this change.
Speaker B:So you're one of those people that's good and has one of the programs where, like, you have the home Service plus or whatever, the coverage to, like, make sure that all of your appliances are warrantied at any given time.
Speaker B:What if Lowe's added something, a service component to this?
Speaker B:Does that change your opinion of it?
Speaker B:Because that.
Speaker B:That might slightly skew where I.
Speaker A:A hundred percent.
Speaker A:Because that's when you said, who has the right to win on this.
Speaker A:I think that was where my mind went.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:It was like a service like that.
Speaker A:Whoever is going to maintain your furnace and your air conditioning unit is going to be the primary person that you want to house this information, because that's how you're going to be coordinating this.
Speaker A:So, yes, if Lowe's can partner with somebody like that, or Lowe's starts that own their own service themselves, which they may even have.
Speaker A:I have no idea.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Then.
Speaker A:Yes, I like this idea a lot more.
Speaker A:And I think that's what you're thinking too, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:I mean, that's the totally different business model, but I think, again, it makes sense of, like, then there's the, like, it gets back to what we were saying, too.
Speaker B:Like, then there's the incentive to be going to that or to be using it or looking at it more on a more frequent basis.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:All right, let us know.
Speaker A:Provider of the new furnace or whatever.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:In that situation.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:When it breaks down.
Speaker A:Which it will, Ann.
Speaker A:Which it will.
Speaker B:I'm not ready to hear that yet.
