4 Home Depot and Lowe’s Shopping Changes Happening This Month

Anyone who takes DIY and home improvement seriously knows how valuable Home Depot and Lowe’s are as resources. The competing retailers are as much of a go-to for amateur home repair projects as they are for professional contractors in need of materials and affordable appliances—all while still making it easy to stay within a budget or even save some money. But now, both stores have plans to make some imminent shopping changes. Here’s what customers can expect this month when they go into effect.

RELATED: 8 Things Lowe’s Shoppers Don’t Realize They Can Get for Free.

1. Home Depot is deepening its focus on pro builders.

Part of the appeal of Home Depot is that it caters to everyone, from casual DIY enthusiasts to licensed contractors. Now, the company is making moves to keep professionals as regular customers.

On June 30, Home Depot announced it was purchasing building products distributor GMS, CNBC reported. The acquisition—which went down for $4.3 billion—comes as the home improvement retailer hopes to win over professional contractors and renovators in an increasingly competitive market.

While the acquisition won’t be completed until early next year, there is still an element of good timing to the deal as many homeowners continue to sit on their properties amid higher mortgage rates, CNBC reports. This decrease in housing turnover will likely lead to larger projects that require outsourcing to professionals.

2. This could help the store maintain low pricing.

The decision to pick up GMS isn’t just about maintaining a reliably steady stream of customers. The deal also comes as tariffs put in place by President Donald Trump on essential building materials such as drywall, steel, and more could affect Home Depot’s bottom line, Forbes reports.

Earlier this year, the home improvement retailer famously committed to keeping its prices stable. The company is uniquely able to do this as it already sources about half of its products from within the U.S., providing a level of insulation from the fees on foreign goods.

However, as amateur DIY home projects continue to wane in the years following a boom during the COVID pandemic, Home Depot is hoping to ensure the contractors and professionals who make up at least 50 percent of their annual sales don’t stray to different suppliers with this move towards vertical integration, per Forbes. Still, this change could help keep costs low for everyday shoppers as well.

RELATED: 13 Secrets Home Depot Doesn’t Want You to Know.

3. Lowe’s is giving its stores a technology bump.

All businesses use new technology to improve their operations. In recent years, some of the most conspicuously adopted changes involve incorporating AI, whether it’s as a customer service bot or online shopping tool. And now, Lowe’s has become the latest retailer to employ it in a way that could affect your next visit.

This year, the retailer announced that it began using AI to help design the layout of its stores, according to Business Insider. By synthesizing data such as customer trends, seasonal changes, and even upcoming weather events, the tech can help locations determine the best placement for everything from plumbing supplies to popular plants.

Even though the company has long used manually collected data to implement similar changes, staff are now able to get actionable feedback in a fraction of the time. Representatives for the store also say this is helping to streamline and simplify existing jobs, not replace them.

“We can now swap layouts more frequently throughout the year, reflecting what customers in that area need at that time,” Chandhu Nair, senior vice president of data, AI, and innovation at Lowe’s, told Business Insider.

4. And Lowe’s is making similar moves for professionals.

As with all competitive relationships, sometimes the best strategy is to resemble your opponent. In this case, Lowe’s is pursuing a similar strategy to keep its core of professional builder and contractor customers happy by announcing the acquisition of Foundation Building Materials last month, AL.com reports.

The retailer picked up the California-based building material distributor for just over twice the price of the Home Depot deal, spending $8.8 billion for the company. Currently, Foundation Building Materials operates 370 locations across the U.S. and Canada, supplying construction and building professionals with hardware, materials, and specialized products.

“With this acquisition, we are advancing our multi-year transformation of the Pro offering,” Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said in an Aug. 2o press release announcing the deal. “FBM’s scalable, multi-trade distribution platform and strong leadership combined with our recent acquisition of ADG (Artisan Design Group) will significantly enhance our Pro offering.”