FREE ESSAY ON LOWE'S HOME IMPROVEMENT WAREHOUSE

LOWE'S HOME IMPROVEMENT WAREHOUSE

As an electrical associate at Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, I have been able to
observe Lowe's product line and the relationship Lowe's has with their vendors.
Understanding these attributes is an important aspect of customer service. When a
customer comes into the store they expect the associate to have knowledge of each brand
that Lowe's carries, so it is important that there is open communication between the
vendor and the associate. 
The branding strategies of Lowe's are important in achieving good customer service. As an
electrical associate, it was clear to me that Lowe's customers came in for a variety of
products. Lowe's was an extremely large store, which allows it to carry breadth as well
as depth of merchandise. Lowe's offers a variety of national and a few private-label
brands to serve the customer's needs.
The national brands are the brands that the associates were instructed to push. These
brands had more brand equity, which gave Lowe's a higher mark-up. The top brands at
Lowe's include Hunter (ceiling fans and light fixtures), Square D (electrical panels),
Sylvania (light bulbs), and Eagle (plugs and switches). These are the highest quality and
most profitable brands that Lowe's sells. The customers that come into the store with any
basic knowledge are familiar with these brands and their quality. Lowe's also carries
national brands such as Catalina (light fixtures), Siemens (electrical panels), and
Supreme (light bulbs). These brands offer the customers moderately priced options to the
top brands. I personally sold a lot of these products because I knew from experience that
the quality difference between Square D and Siemens, for example, is minimal at best. 
These national brands that are available at Lowe's are also sold at most other home
improvement stores. This at first seems to hurt customer loyalty. If a product is
available at many locations then the customer feels that they can go anywhere and buy it.
The difference at Lowe's is the service and knowledge that comes with it. Lowe's
associates are continually trained about the products they sell. This is all backed up
with a guaranteed low price, and translates into loyalty when a customer chooses to shop
at Lowe's because of the quality of products, service, and price. 
Lowe's also caries a few private-label brands. The largest private-label brand in the
electrical department is Harbor Breeze. Harbor Breeze is a line of ceiling fans and light
fixtures. This brand is not manufactured by Lowe's but is sold exclusively by Lowe's. The
brand offers a low price alternative to brands such as Hunter and Catalina. The company
that makes the products also produces Harbor Bay for Home Depot and Hampton Bay for HQ.
Harbor Breeze allows Lowe's to be competitive in the low price category, but these
products are not the most profitable. My selling point here was that you get what you pay
for. If I could tell that a customer was going to make their decision based on price then
I would point out the different features and sell them a Harbor Breeze. I found that most
of my customers wanted a good quality fan for a reasonable price. When this was the case
I would use the Harbor Breeze's lower quality to sell the lower priced Hunter fans. 
The private-label brands are needed at Lowe's, but they are not a strength of Lowe's
business. These brands offer an alternative to the national brands at a lower price.
Lowe's strength is in the national brands because they want to identify themselves with
quality. An example of the strength of the national brands would be at the return desk.
When a customer returns a Hunter ceiling fan the customer tends to want the same exact
fan as a replacement. If the fan happened to be a Harbor Breeze then the customer is more
than likely to ask for a refund or wants to go look for another fan. This has happened
numerous times. It points out the customer's confidence in the Hunter name. 
The relationship between Lowe's and its' vendors is an important part of customer
service. While working at Lowe's I personally dealt with seven different vendors, and I
have a variety of opinions of each vendor. The best vendor was the Sylvania vendor. He
would come directly to the electrical associates that were working and ask if we had any
questions about the products before he went over to help straighten the shelves. This was
excellent communication between the vendor and the store. If an associate has a question
about a product then it is hard for him to sell that product, so communication is the key
to selling more of that vendor's product. The vendor for my security systems was
terrible. The longest he seemed to spend at the store was five minutes. Five minutes is
not enough time to allow an associate to finish with a customer and come ask any
questions. The problem with this is that I didn't know enough about security systems to
give a customer any knowledgeable information, which leads to low sales of security
systems. 
The relationship between Lowe's and its' vendors is not perfect but it works. For the
most part the vendors help with product resets and the appearance of their displays.
Lowe's needs to improve the lines of communication with some of its' vendors in order to
continually improve customer service. After all, it is customer service that separates
Lowe's from the competition.
Understanding the Lowe's product line and trying to develop a relationship with my
vendors has given me great insight in the world of retailing. Knowing the products that
you are trying to sell is an invaluable aspect of customer service, and a lot of this
knowledge can be obtained directly through your vendor. The vendors are, for the most
part, willing to give any information that can help increase sales. I the world of
retailing sales lead to success.