Interconnected retail on a massive scale

Driving Growth Through Connectivity

Millions of customers began home improvement projects during the pandemic, leading to a significant surge in sales for The Home Depot, both online and in person. The retailer's strategic investment in secure connectivity enabled it to accelerate growth and drive unprecedented results during a period of great uncertainty. By enhancing its edge capabilities, customers now benefit from frictionless shopping, improved connectivity, and seamless curbside pickup.

Big Retail, Big Changes

Warehouse-style shopping offers a vast selection of goods and services. However, finding the right product in a large store can be challenging. Leaders at The Home Depot recognized this, especially with over 50,000 unique products per store and millions available online. They needed a way to help customers navigate this volume and easily find what they need.

Several years ago, The Home Depot initiated the "One Home Depot" program to unify its online and in-store shopping experiences. Daniel Grider, Vice President of Technology for The Home Depot, stated, "Customer expectations are changing at an all-time fast pace. What is their expectation? Where do they want to shop? How do they want to shop? We knew we needed to invest in those priorities to improve customer experiences."

Vision

Integrate online and in-store shopping experiences to reduce friction and set the stage for growth.

Strategy

Build an agile, flexible in-store network architecture to make it easier to shop and work at The Home Depot.

Outcomes

• Extends wireless coverage up to 15x outside retail stores (20 feet vs. 100 yards).
• Helps remove friction from the customer experience by integrating online and in-store experiences.
• Provides the agility to scale quickly to significantly expand in-store technology solutions.

Prepared for the Unexpected

The pandemic significantly increased the time people spent at home, driving demand for home improvement. The Home Depot was prepared, drawing on its culture of action and prior investments in innovation. Grider noted, "We have a culture of just doing the right thing. We've been through natural disasters... So, our teams are used to giving their all. We were well positioned because of the foundation for innovation that supports our teams. The pandemic accelerated a lot of the work and investments we were already planning."

Even before the pandemic, online sales were growing rapidly, but in-store experiences did not always align with customer needs. Grider recalled, "Online sales were already growing at a dramatic pace... And we had in-store sales that were continuing to grow, but the experiences didn't always align to meet the customer's needs.”

A Relentless Pursuit of Better

Unifying online and in-store experiences was a significant undertaking. Grider explained the importance of online as the "front door" to the stores, with many customers preferring in-store pickup over delivery. "What that means for us is that half of the people that place orders online prefer to pick their product up inside our store. They don't want us to deliver to them. So, we know how important it is to have the same experience everywhere — from browsing online at home to the moment they step in our store. It's got to be the same."

To thrive during uncertainty, The Home Depot focused on enhancing experiences across its 2,300 stores. "We have a relentless desire to remove friction for our customers and their shopping experience," Grider said. "And the One Home Depot initiative was the key to getting it right."

Improving Outcomes at the Edge

Achieving these goals required substantial improvements in the quantity and quality of networking within and around retail locations. With each store covering 100,000 square feet, extending connectivity to parking areas was a complex but necessary step. Grider emphasized, "I think flexibility is what customers want. It's whenever, however they want to shop, and we have to meet them there. Whether they're shopping outside in the garden center or at one of our seasonal lots, we want them to be connected.”

The Freedom to Scale, the Power to Do More

The solution utilizes HPE Aruba Networking wireless access points managed by HPE Aruba Networking Central cloud, featuring AIOps for proactive network health and security monitoring. This includes HPE Aruba Networking Location Services.

Grider stated, "HPE GreenLake for Networking not only creates pervasive wireless coverage in each store, but simplifies the management and deployment of new systems moving forward."

Crucially, the network makes shopping and working at The Home Depot easier. Grider described the warehouse environment: "We are a warehouse environment. If you think about our retail space, it is high racking, a lot of product. So, it's a challenge to move around and continue to get that coverage. One of the most exciting things about HPE GreenLake for Networking is the scale of the wireless coverage we can achieve."

The new network also enabled The Home Depot to develop custom handheld devices for sales associates, in partnership with Zebra Technologies. Grider explained, "We worked with Zebra Technologies to build a phone that takes advantage of all of the technologies in the Aruba access points. Now we feel like we've really put something into the hands of our associates that empowers them to help customers and help themselves."

Foundational Decisions

The Home Depot recognized the immense scale required for this rollout. Grider recalled, "We looked at what it would take and the upfront investment to make it happen. And then we looked out five years and assessed the cost to refresh it all and we knew we needed a different approach."

Beyond cost, Grider sought to simplify deployment and management. "For us, it's about simplifying the manageability of it — simplifying the developers' interaction with those platforms and the compute."

The Home Depot based its initiative on HPE Aruba Networking's Edge Services Platform (ESP), delivered via HPE GreenLake for Networking, a network-as-a-service solution allowing flexible consumption and subscription-based deployment.

Agility When It Counts Most

This investment unlocked significant business agility for The Home Depot. "HPE GreenLake for Networking really gives us the ability to pivot extremely quickly and deliver new solutions as they're needed," Grider stated.

During the early pandemic, local governments mandated curbside pickup. As an essential business, The Home Depot needed to rapidly scale its outdoor networking. Grider explained, "We didn't have a big curbside presence before, but once the demand changed, we knew we had the foundation to be able to pivot toward that. We're not just talking about extending wireless 15-20 feet in front of the store. We're extending coverage 100 yards. That's a game changing amount of connectivity."

A Helping Hand on the Customer Journey

Another benefit is the solution's support and management by HPE GreenLake for Networking. "We trust the people that make the product to roll it out, support it, and manage the day-to-day analytics," Grider said. "It takes the decision-making burden off of our technology and engineering resources, so they can focus on more strategic business value drivers."

This provides Grider's team with peace of mind. "HPE GreenLake for Networking has really been critical for us to understand what's going on in our stores from the health, the monitoring, the well-being of all the wireless connectivity."

With reliable connectivity, The Home Depot is closer to its goal of providing frictionless and interconnected retail experiences. "We talk about the customer journey. We're on the ride with them," Grider shared. "They're in the driver's seat of where they want to go and how they want to get there. It's up to us to meet them on that journey with the expectations that they deserve and need.”

Solution

HPE GreenLake for Networking

• HPE Aruba Networking Central
• HPE Aruba Networking CX 6300 Switch Series
• HPE Aruba Networking 570 Series Access Points
• HPE Aruba Networking UXI Sensors