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I'm surprised by a lot of the comments praising Home Depot's web site. I feel like every time I've intended to buy from them recently I'm befuddled by the vari

I'm surprised by a lot of the comments praising Home Depot's web site. I feel like every time I've intended to buy from them recently I'm befuddled by the variety of different ways to obtain things - "ship to store", "ship to home" or "scheduled delivery" (on top of browsing what's in stock in stores). I always seem to find a frustrating mix of things - "oh, my store has that part, but the other part is only in the store a few miles away, and this other thing I can have shipped, but shipping is only free over a certain threshold, which I might be able to reach if I shift these in-store items to be shipped, although not everything is eligible to be shipped....". I'm sure I'm not the only one who has given up on a purchase due to frustration like this. If Home Depot can find ways to handle these logistics themselves rather than make the customer do so, they could likely increase conversions. I'm not sure what that would look like - maybe having runners between stores could be part of it? Regardless, if I could just go to one Home Depot and pick up my entire order a day or so after ordering online, that'd be great.

mindslight 5y ago
FWIW the shipping minimum applies to the whole order, not just the products that are shipping. So $10 of items to be shipped along with $40 of items for in store pickup is fine. "Scheduled delivery" is the same inventory/process as store pickup, but paying someone to pick it up for you. "Ship to store" is the same process as ship to home, but might be handy in some rare situations. The two options represent two parallel logistics chains, and are quite similar to other brick and mortar stores. Once you know this, it's actually beneficial because you can choose whether to get the items soon by picking up, or choose from a much larger selection that can be shipped (possibly drop shipped). Although as you mention, it would be nice if they had a middleground option that would bring a medium selection to your local store for pickup within a fixed day or two, especially from other local stores.

mindslight 5y ago

FWIW the shipping minimum applies to the whole order, not just the products that are shipping. So $10 of items to be shipped along with $40 of items for in store pickup is fine. "Scheduled delivery" is the same inventory/process as store pickup, but paying someone to pick it up for you. "Ship to store" is the same process as ship to home, but might be handy in some rare situations. The two options represent two parallel logistics chains, and are quite similar to other brick and mortar stores. Once you know this, it's actually beneficial because you can choose whether to get the items soon by picking up, or choose from a much larger selection that can be shipped (possibly drop shipped). Although as you mention, it would be nice if they had a middleground option that would bring a medium selection to your local store for pickup within a fixed day or two, especially from other local stores.