Name: homedepot_070714v2
Uploaded: 2014-07-07
Duration: 2 min 54 s
Description: homedepot_070714v2

[ MUSIC ] Frank, thank you so much for being here today. No, thank you for coming. We are at Home Depot's Direct Fulfillment Center, which opened in February, and it is enormous. At 1. 1 million. Million square feet here in McDunnah, Georgia. Tell me a little bit about this, what is the DFC supposed to do for Home Depot? The DFC replaces a lot of other facilities that we now have that serve our . com customer. And then expands the numbers of skews that we can ship within two days to our customers across the US. We know our customers have a value in getting things within reasonable time frames and this allows us much better performance to our customer needs. [ MUSIC ] You were so far behind on, on the internet and in online strategy. You didn't need to do all the intermediary stuff, in a way, and you were sort of learn from the other, early adopters. There is a certain second mover advantage. Uh- huh. Last year, 2013. For example, we had our highest same store sales growth that we've had since the late 90s. We were $ 5 Billion in 2013. So you grew 5 Billion in revenue, but you opened no stores? Not having to build the stores has freed us up to be able to make significant capital expenditures for our distribution facility and technology. We devoted a lot of attention to our supply chain in the first couple of years that I had this job, but it was supply chain supporting the stores. This represents turning and addressing our opportunities for . com and interconnected retail. [ MUSIC ] So now all of this speaks to a broader strategic shift on the part of the company. It's absolutely clear that the Internet has a huge impact on our customer's shopping experience. That we have a competitive advantage as a bricks and mortar retailer with 2, 000 locations across the United States, 2, 200 locations across North America. We are extremely convenient for returning a product in store picking up a product in store, having it shipped to the store. We think when you think about that capabilities for the customer on top of if you wanna look and feel and touch the product and see what it looks like, you can go into the store and see it, if you want advice, you can get that online or with the associate in the store. But those inner connected capabilities are actually a big competitive advantage for us. [ MUSIC ]