![]() They hoped to figure out the user journey within Lowe’s across the portfolios-for example, the Pro customer journey mapped across Lowe's store and e-commerce teams, two prominent technology organizations within Lowe's with specific portfolios and strategies. I met with Pro Sales business team members, who mentioned that they wanted to unlock pro personas across the Pro platform. The Current State of the Residential Contractor Experience Thus, I was ready to make the shopping experience for the residential contractors as frictionless as possible. I designed and developed the first health and safety iOS app for Canadian oil and gas industry construction workers, so I was very familiar with the construction industry and the different trades involved. Journey mapping the B2B residential contractor sales journey was my raison d'être for joining Lowe's CUX design team as its first product designer.īefore my tech career, I had spent almost a decade in the oil and gas industry working with construction companies. My New Project: Mapping the Residential Contractor Journey However, I was focused on the underserved residential contractor customer group within the Lowe's Pro customer group. The Pro customer group to which Lowe's sold materials included residential and commercial contractors, which also covered colleges, companies with large rental portfolios, and many who serviced, maintained, and developed buildings. ![]() This project would focus on the residential contractors who purchased building materials from Lowe's. In early 2020, I was ready to take on my next project in the Pro product portfolio. Lowe's Pro sales business team oversaw Pro Online, Loyalty Experience, MVP Pro Rewards, Business Tools, and eProcurement. The idea that the typical incremental product-featured improvement cycle would make a difference would also not suffice. Also, incremental improvements in the customer experience would most likely only yield incremental sales growth. I knew that to make a considerable dent in Home Depot's sales lead in the B2B contractor segment, cookie-cutter attempts wouldn’t (excuse the pun) cut it. They started their digital transformation earlier and were laser-focused on the most lucrative customer segment, whereas Lowe's gravitated toward the DIY and do-it-for-me (DIFM) customer segments. In short, not only was Home Depot generating more sales from their B2B contractor segment, but they also had a head start on Lowe's when it came to eliminating and replacing their legacy back-end tech stack. Home Depot generated more sales in the Pro B2B contractor segment, and they started their digital transformation initiative much sooner than Lowe's because they realized (much like Lowe's did later) that legacy software tools become a huge hindrance when you’re evolving your customer experience and growing sales in particular customer segments. When your competitor generates $54B more in sales from a customer segment to which you also sell, you need to rethink your business strategy to make significant inroads into that segment. I wanted to use this Pro contractor sales journey map to uncover new innovation and growth opportunities that Lowe's could exploit to benefit the customers and their businesses.īusiness problem Grow Lowe's Market Share in the Pro B2B Segment When they find materials that match their primary business capabilities (build, repair, renovate) and their skill set (trade), contractors purchase those goods for their project and intend to start and finish as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next one. ![]() The sales journey map would follow a B2B residential contractor looking for residential projects. I wanted to build a generic sales journey map of the Pro B2B customer segment for the Lowe's store technology organization, and I wanted the Pro sales business team to base their business strategy decisions coupled with financial data and future investments on this map. Home Depot had 3x the contactor market share versus Lowe's. Each year, Home Depot generates approximately $54B more sales in the B2B contractor customer segment than Lowe's, and Lowe's leadership wanted that gap closed. The fact that Home Depot ( HD) had a massive lead over Lowe's ( LOW) when it came to selling building materials to the B2B contractor segment was no secret. Lowe's defines a Pro as a person or business that uses multiple suppliers to build, maintain, or improve a property.
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