Home Depot Rolls Out New "Line-Busting" Technology For Spring

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

FIRST Phones will help with faster checkout and location of items for customers.

Home improvement retailer Home Depot is rolling out some updated employee-facing technology to help its customers find what they need faster.

This spring, Home Depot associates will be equipped with the next generation of its in-store mobile technology, called the FIRST Phone. According to the press release, Home Depot  has deployed some forty thousand of the devices to help stores expedite checkout through "line-busting", conduct mobile check-out for outside garden purchases, and allow associates to  locating products, check inventory, or explain product features.

The new units offer an intuitive interface, web access and the Home Depot mobile app, as well as full telephone and push-to-talk capabilities.

Initially, the FIRST Phones were adopted by the retailer in 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal, designed to help customers locate items and give associates more information at their fingertips.  The first rollout used the First Phone Junior at a time when few retailers had full-blown mobile strategies and, if they did, were focused more on mobile’s potential to drive online sales as opposed to in-store sales. In the period since, numerous major retailers have embraced a multitude of mobile in-store strategies, including Wi-Fi, store modes on apps, QR codes and beacons.

The FIRST Phones, designed specifically for Home Depot, serve as a phone and walkie-talkie, and provide inventory management, product look-up, business analytics and even line-busting features to speed up checkout. The  new updated devices  feature a more intuitive interface, Internet access and inclusion of the Home Depot mobile app to help customers.

FIRST Phones helps sales associates conduct checkout anywhere in the store, as well as locate products, provide additional information regarding products, and check inventory. The handsets will be of particular value in the outdoor garden segment of the retail store.

“Clienteling is a sales strategy for increasing the volume or frequency potential of the in-store shopping experience by delivering 360-degree customer views and sales tools to associates,” said Sheryl Kingstone, Toronto-based research director for Yankee Group told Mobile Commerce Daily. “Mobile CRM platforms have become the center of many mobile engagement strategies, especially as they relate to sales enablement.

“Consumers have more information at their fingertips than the sales associates,” she said. “Retail stores must empower front-line associates with the right information at the right time.

The retailer has been looking for ways to optimize the customer experience and improve its sales.  Last fall, the home improvement giant launched its “Home Depot Delivers” service to fulfill same-day shipping on purchases.  The service was piloted in a handful of stores, with plans to further expand to all Home Depot locations in the future.