The past several years have been tough going for most retailers.
The Covid pandemic, which began in 2020, leaked into the ensuing years, bringing plenty of challenges with it.
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First, Covid created difficulties for retailers, like social distancing, stay-at-home orders and heightened consumer fear.
Fewer folks wanted to go shopping in town; instead they sheltered in place or ordered stuff online. Obviously, this was bad for most brick-and-mortar businesses, which had a lot of overhead to cover and employees and bills to pay.
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It didn’t help that debt got a lot more expensive once things started to reopen. Interest rates soared and suddenly both expansion and survival became next to impossible for small businesses in town.
There were, of course, a few exceptions. Large corporations gobbled up smaller competitors, many of which were selling at discount. Open lots were also easier to come by, so if you think you’ve seen a lot more Targets or Walmarts around town, you probably aren’t imagining things.
A shopper walks inside a Home Depot in Roseburg, Ore., on Nov. 19, 2018.
Shutterstock-Manuela Durson
Home improvement soared in the 2020s
But it wasn’t just Target and Amazon that saw success in the past few years. Those stay-at-home orders were also pretty good for home-improvement retailers.
Since many of us stayed at home with less to do outside, we looked around our homes and started making to-do lists. Suddenly, repainting the powder room or renovating the kitchen became a lot more pressing — and accessible — with all that extra time on our hands.
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So when things began to reopen, many Americans ran to their nearest Home Depot (HD) or Lowe’s (LOW) .
Both home improvement retailers have soared over the past five years as ambitious DIY-ers move around the country, tweak their homes, or hire contractors for larger projects.
Lowe’s makes a Home-Depot-style move
Understandably, both home-improvement giants have attempted to capture as much of this enthusiasm for projects and renovations as possible.
In 2024, Home Depot began opening more professional distribution centers for contractors who handle larger jobs. These larger hubs, located across the U.S. and Canada, cater to professionals like contractors, remodelers and designers.
These pros typically need bulk orders of common construction items, like lumber, paint and insulation. But the centers are easier to navigate for pros, and offer other perks like delivery to job sites if needed.
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And now Lowe’s is tweaking its contractor-rewards program in the hopes of nabbing the same cohort of professionals.
The home-improvement chain had already rebranded its loyalty program, to MyLowe’s Pro Rewards instead of MVPs Pro Rewards & Partnership Program.
But now, Lowe’s is changing the rewards program to target more small and medium-sized business owners, offering more perks outside of just home improvement.
The new program will include access to things like:
Sports merchandise and memorabiliaGift cards to small local businessesVolume discountsPoints earned on qualifying purchasesMembers-only dealsFree shipping20% paint discount after reaching a spending minimumOnline order quotes
Lowe’s says many of these options should be useful to contractors and professionals who are doing larger jobs, so the revamping process should make shopping at the store easier.
“If you’re a pro, we want you enrolled in MyLowe’s Pro Rewards program because we’re focused on saving pros more when they choose Lowe’s first,” Lowe’s’ executive vice president of pro and home services, Quonta Vance, said of the change.
“This is one of the few rewards programs in the industry designed to reward pros from their first dollar spent – no special volume thresholds to earn and save at Lowe’s.”
The program is free to join and points accrue with every qualifying purchase.
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