The Home Depot has expanded its e-commerce program by offering 20,000 items at its Web site to residents of five Western states.
The site became e-commerce-enabled yesterday, allowing shoppers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Arizona to make purchases online. Deliveries will be made using United Parcel Service.
Residents of those five states can go to www.homedepot.com, enter their ZIP code and move to the e-commerce section.
“There is reason to believe [customers] would be more eager to try e-commerce delivery in those states,” said Don Harrison, spokesman for The Home Depot, Atlanta. “We felt this would be beneficial to residents who live in remote areas where they would have to travel long distances to get to the nearest Home Depot.”
The home improvement retailer began selecting cities last year in which to test its e-commerce program, including Las Vegas, San Antonio and Austin, TX, Harrison said.
The company has reports from tests in those cities, but he would not comment on them. The site will remain e-commerce-enabled to residents of those cities.
The Home Depot originally wanted to launch an e-commerce site in 1999 but delayed those plans. Company officials previously said that the initiative demanded a lot more work than they had anticipated.
“We've had a Web site for a number of years, but it was strictly an informational or an educational site,” Harrison said. “Then we offered online clinics, where we teach people how to do different projects around the home — essentially the same approach we've taken on in our stores. The last phase of bolstering our Web site is e-commerce.”
The retailer plans to make the site e-commerce-enabled in other states, but Harrison would not specify which ones.
