MMA CASE STUDY
The Home Depot
Mobile App
Campaign Summary
Home Depot built an app that allowed its customers to locate items sold in stores on their smartphones and used an
augmented reality feature to test out items by virtually placing them around their homes to see how the products would
look prior to purchase.
Strategy and Execution
The Home Depot enhanced its mobile app to support two key initiatives: first, it identified opportunities to drive deeper
engagement with product selection, and then it developed increased functionality to better support the in-store shopping
experience.
These initiatives targeted a broad group of customers who, like much of the population, are increasingly turning to their
mobile devices to support buying decisions at all stages of the purchase cycle. Ranging from new homeowners to retirees,
Home Depot’s diverse customer base required a mobile experience that met the needs of all users. While this segment
was broad, Home Depot believed all users had fundamental needs, whether it was locating products more quickly,
conveniently buying from home for in-store pickup, or simply making an informed purchase decision.
Extending from its overarching brand strategy, Home Depot used technology unique to mobile that brought new value
to users in the form of app enhancements.
Research showed that product reviews are an important part of the buying decision, so to drive engagement, the
brand expanded the product review capabilities so users could not only read reviews, but also write them and submit
their own pictures of products they had bought directly from their mobiles. Rather than being sent to other retailers’
sites, customers could now research and compare products in line with their Home Depot shopping experience, giving
them the knowledge to buy with confidence.
Home Depot incorporated augmented reality into the app to further drive product engagement by enabling customers
to use their mobile devices to preview how products looked in their homes before purchase. Users took pictures of their
spaces and then selected their products of choice. The product was added to a transparent background and layered
over the room photo, quickly letting consumers see for themselves what the product would look like in their homes.
Product images were saved to the device, making it easier to compare which item looked better in a specific space —
for instance, a user could determine which patio set best fit the back porch.
To better support the in-store experience, Home Depot made significant updates to the store-mapping feature. Each
store holds tens of thousands of products, and store layouts vary from location to location. The brand saw a clear
opportunity to help customers find the products they needed faster. Within the app, each product information page
included the product’s location, linking to a specific store map. That functionality continues to evolve today, with
dynamic mapping in over 800 stores that places a marker on the interactive store map, showing customers the exact
bay in the exact aisle where a product is located. This feature finishes rolling out to all U.S. stores later this year.
Results
By focusing on the two objectives (real-time inventory and pricing details) rooted deeply within its overarching strategy
of helping people do more with their projects, Home Depot realized valuable enhancements to the mobile app and
translated that value to its customers. Each update provided a more powerful tool for consumers looking to take projects
into their own hands. The company saw success in a number of measures, to the tune of triple-digit growth in all major
indices, including overall app traffic and orders.
Augmented reality alone generated a threefold increase in customer engagement as the brand continues to enable more
SKUs across the store with this functionality.
Finally, customers praised the enhancements, and the company saw rave reviews and five-star ratings within the App
Store, specifically linking to the store-mapping and augmented-reality features.
Source
“The Home Depot Mobile App.” 2013 MMA Smarties Submission Mobile App. Brand: Home Depot. Lead Agency:
The Richards Group.
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The Home Depot Mobile App