Home Depot Vs Homeportfolio

Look and Feel

The Home Depot Company

The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States. The Home Depot was established in 1978 and has grown tremendously with sales amounting to over $64.8 billion. The Home Depot has 1,890 stores nationwide including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico with over 300,000 employees. With global competition heavy amongst home improvement industries today, Home Depot recently decided to expand retail operations into China. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and is included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor's 500 Index. The Home Depot strives to be the best corporate partner possible in our communities. Home Depot makes positive contributions as a neighbor, an employer, a retailer and as a profitable investment opportunity through successful and strategic operations of the company (Home Depot, 2006). The Home Depot helps people fulfill dreams by helping them:

* To live in a clean, safe and caring community

* To be part of a challenging, diverse, and inclusive workplace

* To build and live in the house of their dreams

* To create wealth and financial security

Home Depot recently redesigned its home page and their store catalog (www.homedepot.com) in an attempt to "streamline" its web site and "improve sales and traffic. Home Depot continues to target a wealthier audience, with its newest home page, Outdoor Living, writes multi-channel Merchant. The new home page, which launched earlier this month, features Home Depot's name and targets consumers earning a minimum income of $75,000. The items featured in Outdoor Living are sold in Home Depot stores and on its website (Home Depot, 2006).

The website and catalog differs from the two titles Home Depot launched fall 2005 - lighting catalog Paces Trading Co. and furniture catalog 10 Crescent Lane, which target consumers with over $225,000 in annual income. Neither the website nor catalog featured Home Depot's name on the cover or products available in Home Depot stores or on HomeDepot.com. Home Depot split with former agency of record DDB Worldwide last month, and was seeking a new direct marketing and interactive business agency (Home Depot, 2006).

With Home Depots new website change, the site brings a customized online experience, allowing anybody to efficiently shop the products carried by their preferred store. Now anybody can reliably assemble their materials lists for upcoming jobs on their own schedule. From your home or office, at any time of the day or night, they are ready to help you get the job done.

Create an order, submit it online to a preferred store for fulfillment, and arrange for convenient pickup or delivery. Consumers find that the website helps make jobs run more efficiently.

Homeportfolio.Com

Homeportfolio.com is an internet company that helps consumers, architects, and interior designers find and choose products and local service providers for their new homes, additions, or renovation projects. The company has created the largest database of premium home design products on the web. Over the past eight years, Homeportfolio.com has brought together the best home design ideas and brands. Homeportfolio has about 700,000 products, 100,000 retailers and 1,700 manufacturer brands, all in one place. Homeportfolio helps consumers, manufacturers, retailers and design professionals understand their options. Homeportfolio lets them communicate about choices using shared images. And they help find the nearest retailers where they can touch and feel the products they choose. Homeportfolio is the world's leading directory of home design products. The Web site has more than 350,000 registered users and attracts 4 million unique visitors per year (Homeportfolio, 2006).

Design Services by Home Depot

Today, Home Depot stores already have a design center staffed by professional designers who can give you free in-store consultation for home improvement projects ranging from lighting to computer-assisted design for kitchens. New Innovations is ready to take it one step further and offer this service online. Following the business model presented in HomePortfolio.com, Home Depot aims to take over the web home design market with their latest addition "Consultants Online." Using the concepts of Business to Business, Home Depot will be able to supply all the products necessary for a customers design needs. Also, Home Depot will then use Business to Consumer to cater to individual needs of the consumer.

Supply Chain

Home Depot depends on their suppliers to get what the customers need. They provide a one stop shop so we can be committed to ensuring customer satisfaction. Home Depot does all the work in finding the right supplies, so customers can be satisfied and find what they are looking for. Home Depot recognizes that in today's aggressive market environment, companies must have an effective supply chain to be more competitive and profitable in the global market. Consultants Online is going to be an extension to the services we already offer at HomeDepot.Com. Home Depot will use all the same sources in our already existing supply chain, with the exception of one addition. Online Consultants needs available consultants to assist customers online during an optional "Live Chats Session." Home Depot plans to staff well trained designers exclusively as online consultants. The Home Depot supports a large scope of partner types from merchandising to financial institutions. They are committed to providing partners with information and tools to enhance the overall supply chain effectiveness. Existing groups of The Home Depot supply chain are described in the next section of this paper (Home Depot, 2006):

1. Merchandise Suppliers - Merchandise Suppliers sell products to The Home Depot for resale in our stores, interacting with our merchandising teams to determine an interest for their product and to establish a program with product and cost parameters.

2. Import Suppliers - A direct Import Supplier is a supplier that manufactures product overseas. The Home Depot works with directly with the supplier, rather than through sales representatives. Products are typically purchased on an FOB (Freight on Board) or FCA (Free Carrier All) basis.

3. Logistics Partners - A Domestic Logistics Supplier is a logistics carrier