Home Depot

Home Depot has been an immensely successful do-it-yourself home improvement store over the past years. However, it cannot avoid new competitors opening their doors or unavoidable issues coming about on a day to day basis. This brings us to the threats that The Home Depot faces. The first threat that The Home Depot faces is the declining United States economy. This unavoidable threat has been preventing many of the U.S. citizens from making major purchases, including starting new at home projects. The Home Depot takes a huge hit from this slump in the economy, customers look for cheaper solutions rather than spending money at The Home Depot. According to reports at Harvard University, spending money on home improvement projects will continue to decline at a rate of 12.1% during this year. The Home Depot’s success depends on the prices that it sets, store location, customer service and their variety of product selection. With each market that The Home Depot is involved in, there are overabundances of specialty home improvement stores that have the potential to cut into the share of Home Depot’s market share. Some of its competitors include Ace Hardware, Lowes, True Value and other mom and pop home improvement stores. Home Depot’s main competitor, Lowes, is virtually interchangeable with Home Depot. This becomes an issue because of the customer loyalty that The Home Depot is used to. Much of The Home Depots sales and success comes from loyal, returning customers when have been going to The Home Depot since it opened its doors. Many contractors and do-it-yourself gurus will chose The Home Depot over any other home improvement store. Studies have shown that when a new Lowes opens up in a Home Depot sales market, Home Depot’s overall sales have dropped by approximately 15%.

Another threat that The Home Depot faces comes from the inside of the store from their own employees. There has been a steep increase in customer complaints in recent years about...