“Lowe’s Cos. is enhancing its website and equipping store employees with iPhones as the second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer seeks to catch up to Home Depot Inc. (HD) and boost sales from its existing locations,” Chris Burritt reports for Bloomberg.
“Next month, Lowe’s will introduce its MyLowes online tool that customers will be able to use to store owner’s manuals, warranties and paint formulas, Chief Information Officer Mike Brown said in an interview,” Burritt reports. “The Mooresville, North Carolina- based company is arming workers with 42,000 iPhone 4s to answer shoppers’ questions and ring up purchases.”
Burritt reports, “The company is working to catch larger Home Depot, which gave employees Motorola Inc. handheld devices last year to let them spend more time helping customers and less on behind-the- scene duties.”
MacDailyNews Take: Motorola? Pfft. Lowe’s has done more than “catch up,” they’ve whipped right past Home Depot by choosing The King of All Smartphones.
Burritt reports, “Lowe’s is replacing 72,000 computer screens with flat panels in more than 1,700 stores, increasing bandwidth for transmitting data and adding Wifi for shoppers’ smartphones, Brown said. It’s adding thousands of items for sale online and last month introduced a Spanish-language version of lowes.com and an app for the iPhone and the iPod touch.”
“The Apple Inc. iPhones replace scanner guns based on technology dating back to the early 1990s,” Burritt reports. “Each store is getting about 25 of the devices which eventually will be enabled for mobile calling, e-emailing and text-messaging as well as processing credit and debit card purchases, said Brown, who has been with Lowe’s for 26 years.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Don E.” for the heads up.]
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