At-Home Depot

The Home Depot (Atlanta) launched its online store today to Las Vegas customers. The retailer's first such web site will permit the chosen customer base to shop from the store's entire 40,000-product inventory. Following testing with a pilot group of professional customers, the online sales service will be expanded to all customers in metropolitan Las Vegas shortly. Based on the results of Las Vegas, Home Depot will expand online sales to additional markets during the third and fourth quarters. Two Texas metro areas — Austin and San Antonio — are the next two markets where the online service will be rolled out.

The web site name is http://www.homedepot.com, but visitors other than those in the target group only get the option of signing in with the prospect of becoming a Home Team member and being among the first to shop the store when it is more widely available.

Customers on the site will be able to search for products three ways — by key word, by brand or by SKU (stock keeping unit). The customer can request pick-up at a specific store, or have the products delivered. For pick-up at the store, the order must be submitted two hours before the pick-up request. Delivery via Home Depot truck will be available next day and UPS shipping is a 2-day service.