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July Retail Ratings: Home Depot Declines but Still on Top
Lowe's Closing Gap Slowly but Surely
| Source: BIGresearch
COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwire - August 5, 2008) - 28.5% of consumers head to Home Depot most
often for their home improvement needs, hammering out the competition for
the lead in this category, according to the July Retail Ratings Report from
BIGresearch (http://www.bigresearch.com). However, it appears Home Depot's
customers are starting to go elsewhere; the big box experienced substantial
losses in consumer share among all adults as well as lucrative households
with incomes greater than $50,000.
According to the report, Home Depot's share decreased over three points
among all adults from July 07 (31.6%), resulting in a negative Consumer
Equity Index™ (CEI)* of 90.05. It seems their biggest rival, Lowe's, has
made small gains in consumer share (22.9% in Jul 08 v. 22.2% in July 07),
giving them a CEI of 103.35. And although Wal-Mart's overall share is low
(6% of all adults), it's up from last year (5.4%), giving the discount
giant a CEI of 111.67. *CEI measures growth in share year over year. An
index of 100 is flat, while an index of 105 indicates 5% growth.
"Home Depot's consumer share has declined since posting a high of 40.9% in
July 2002," said Pam Goodfellow, Senior Analyst at BIGresearch. "With the
proliferation of big box stores, it appears that consumers are becoming
less discriminating with their store choice. Additionally, with high gas
prices, it's becoming increasingly attractive for consumers to pick up a
paint brush along with groceries at one-stop-shops like Wal-Mart."
Home Depot saw a more significant loss in consumer share among adults who
report a household income greater than $50,000, with a CEI of 87.94. Lowe's
CEI for this segment is 96.20, indicating a slight loss in share for them
as well.
For a complimentary excerpt of the July report for Home Improvement (all
consumers and those with household incomes greater than $50,000), please
click the following link: http://info.bigresearch.com/.
BIGresearch's Retail Ratings Reports (RRR) are available monthly for 12
major merchandise categories. They are developed from BIGresearch's monthly
Consumer Intentions & Actions (CIA) Survey of over 7,500 online interviews.
About BIGresearch
BIGresearch is a consumer intelligence firm providing solution-based
insights of consumer behavior, present and future, in areas of products and
services, retail, financial services, automotive and media. BIGresearch
conducts the monthly Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey (CIA) of 7,500+
respondents and the semi-annual Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM) of 15,000+
respondents. More information is available at http://www.bigresearch.com.