EXCLUSIVE: Home Depot builds retail media network around DIY needs
The Home Depot Inc. has a unique customer base and tailors its retail media network to maximize brands’ ability to target it.
Chain Store Age recently spoke with Melanie Babcock, VP of Orange Apron Media and monetization, Home Depot, to discuss the details of how and why the leading home improvement retailer launched a retail media network in 2018 and then upgraded it to the new Orange Apron Media offering in March 2024.
Babcock discussed how Orange Apron Media helps brand partners of Home Depot optimally reach its residential and pro customers at crucial times in the buying process, using lawncare brand Scotts as a specific example.
What made Home Depot decide to offer a proprietary retail media network?
Our first launch was in 2018 and at the time there were less than 10 of what I would call first-party data networks, not necessarily housed at retailers. I was building out what we called our audience marketing practice, which was reading signals from our customers involved in certain home improvement projects.
I thought this data would also really be important to our suppliers because they also want to whether a customer is working on a bath project or painting their house; those are difficult signals to gather and are owned by the retailer.
I started thinking about how to easily give our suppliers access to our audience data for them to connect with customers along their buying journeys. There wasn’t any ‘Big Bang’ moment.
What benefits does the network offer Home Depot and your partners?
When Home Depot is healthy, our partners and customers are healthy. Everyone wins. Orange Apron Media is here to make that whole process easier and better.
The Home Depot customer is very different in their buying cycle from customers of other types of retailers. A customer could go to a mass retailer and pick up bread and eggs and shoes, but as soon as they start solving problems in their home, their relationship with the retailer changes and it becomes about the project and specific needs associated with it.
Before Home Depot had a retail media network, our suppliers didn't have a lot of access to those customers or points of consideration. Only Home Depot had that data, and we used it for personalized marketing purposes.
The benefit to the supplier is they can now intersect a customer in the varying points of those project journeys, which can be somewhat long, or can introduce new and upgraded products.
It's an opportunity for the supplier to be introduced to the customer, not only in the buying journey, but in communicating to the customer features like product innovation and price points that are important to the customer. A customer isn’t going to buy a kitchen faucet that many times, so they want the right one.
Why does Scotts participate in Orange Apron Media?
Scotts is not an exclusive supplier to Home Depot, but we are their largest customer and we have more homeowners, who are outdoor customers, than any other retailer.
Renters are not worried about your lawn, but homeowners are. Depending how long they have owned their home and their geography, homeowners have different lawn maintenance needs. Different areas have different climates and grass types, and Home Depot can identify customers with varying lawn needs.
Scotts wants to know that information, because they can then introduce the right product for a shopper’s specific lawn.
Can you discuss any future plans for Orange Apron Media?
We just did a study and found that when a brand is on the shelf at a Home Depot store and a customer is standing in the aisle, they have an increase in brand trust because Home Depot selected that brand.
We want to be able to bring that trust into more awareness channels because we know it has a big impact on the customer. Some of the other areas of innovation where Home Depot is focusing is on multicultural audiences, especially our Spanish-language customers.
We also need to specifically target our pro customers, because a pro contractor is a very different customer than a consumer, and have to think about them very differently.
We just launched our first brand page in that's written in Spanish through a partnership with Behr Paint that targets pro painters. You’re going to hear more about those kinds of innovations on our platform, because I think it's very relevant to our brand and to our customer base.