The Home Depot elevates the customer experience and differentiates with same-day

The Situation

When The Home Depot announced its billion-dollar plan to reimagine its supply chain in 2018, it launched a “One Supply Chain” vision to streamline logistics, increase product velocity and reach the majority of its customers in two days or less. They started testing last-mile delivery in proof-of-concept trials with several leading delivery platforms. The objective was to test emerging delivery models to improve convenience and speed-to-market – key drivers of loyalty for DIY consumers – with the goal of shrinking delivery times from warehouses and stores to customer’s doors.

Ultimately, Roadie emerged on top, thanks to our exceptional on-time delivery performance and proven ability to enable scalable crowdsourced delivery, not just in tier one markets, but in secondary cities and rural towns in between. Just a year after the pilot launched, the world’s largest home improvement retailer expanded same-day home improvement delivery with Roadie, reaching more than 300 cities by the end of 2018.

The Home Depot is committed to building the fastest, most efficient supply chain in home improvement and our customers have made it clear that same-day or next-day deliveries to their homes and job sites is a critical part of that. We’re investing to bring this level of service to 90 percent of the US population, and Roadie is a key partner for us in making this a reality.

Mark Holifield, EVP – The Home Depot Supply Chain

As a clear indicator of exactly how strategic the partnership had become, in February 2019 The Home Depot took an equity stake in Roadie, joining Roadie’s fully-subscribed Series C funding round. The path to a growing, longer-term business engagement was set.

The Result

Crafting a successful solution, validating results

Early planning efforts, a desire to innovate, a clear vision of the short and long-term strategy, and the experience gained with the initial phased rollout of same-day service proved to be invaluable as The Home Depot responded to these challenges. In a matter of just 2 weeks, same-day delivery was expanded to over 600 stores in March, followed by another 300 in April. By the end of the year, 1,300 store locations were serving their local communities with reliable, same-day delivery. Thanks to the integration completed a year before, same-day delivery became the go-to choice of many online shoppers, thanks to wide availability, free delivery options and the ability for customers to get live tracking on their smartphones, from the store right to their doorstep.

Proof was in performance. Even with more than a triple-digit increase in delivery volume, Roadie’s crowdsourced network of drivers quickly flexed up. That quick ramp-up of capacity, targeted to specific stores and regions, enabled The Home Depot to effectively manage constantly shifting demands that varied by state, region and local community.

Rapid, agile, scalable same-day delivery that improves the customer experience

Delivery of an ecommerce order is the last line of defense for a retailer’s brand. It has to be flawless. Roadie helped The Home Depot meet the challenges of 2020 imperatives. Over a two-month period, Roadie’s driver community effectively flexed up capacity (at a predictable, incremental cost) to ensure sufficient service, expanding coverage more than five-fold to serve 1,300 stores nationwide.

Despite so many supply chain disruptions created by the pandemic, on-time performance for The Home Depot stayed consistently at or above 97 percent. In fact, Roadie’s community of drivers demonstrated how well it performs under pressure — the higher demand only fueled driver engagement and improved nearly every business metric for The Home Depot’s delivery program.

As the COVID-19 vaccine delivery gains traction, and more and more consumers get their shots, the unprecedented realities of the pandemic – and the unique demands placed on consumers and retailers – will start to subside.  Yet many experts believe consumer behavior has changed permanently. The explosion of eCommerce ordering, and the demand for prompt home delivery, is here to stay.

Rapid, agile, scalable same-day delivery – one considered a nice to have convenience — has become an integral, essential element of a successful consumer buying experience. It’s made The Home Depot more resilient and able to perform in a time of great uncertainty. As we come out of the pandemic, it also demonstrates how The Home Depot has maintained a level of innovation, service integrity and responsiveness that speaks to the strength of its brand and its market leadership.