Lowe's buys 42,000 iPhones for staff

DIY chain Lowe’s is buying 42,000 iPhones to handle credit and debit card transactions, replacing 72,000 flat screens in an attempt to free its employees from their fixed pay desks and allowing them to interact more with the customers.

Improving customer information 

Each store will receive 25 iPhones to assist in payment transactions, but also to check stocks (also in other stores), research past sales of a certain item and even inform customers about when the product was last sold. If a certain item is only available in other stores, the ‘Area Lookup’ application shows which one is the closest and how far the other store is. 

The modernisation also includes Lowe’s’s website, which is expanded with a Spanish version as well. A special app allows customers to keep track of their purchases and find manuals and warranties. They can even make a profile for every room in their house and talk about home improvement projects on-line with Lowe’s’s employees.

Battle for DIY supremacy

With these new projects, Lowe’s wants to fuel its battle with market leaders Home Depot, who have been bigger than Lowe’s for the last nine quarters. Home Depot has handed mobile Motorola devices to its employees, albeit with fewer applications. Now that the DIY market in the US is saturated, both chains have shifted their spendings from opening new stores to making existing stores as profitable as possible.