Home improvement retail giant Lowe’s Canada has launched a new same-day delivery service in over 140 Lowe’s, RONA, and Réno-Dépôt corporate stores across the country.
The company said the service is mainly concentrated in major urban hubs in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.
“Online shopping is deeply rooted in our shopping habits, and we are pleased to expand our delivery service offering to better meet the needs of our customers who are looking to avoid the delays and get their orders quickly,” said Véronique Paris, Vice-President, Supply Chain, Distribution, and Logistics at Lowe’s Canada.
“We are constantly seeking to be agile in order to offer our customers more options for picking up their orders. The addition of this new service is a good example of these efforts. In fact, once the initial rollout phase is completed, we will be able to offer same-day delivery in additional Lowe’s, RONA, and Réno-Dépôt stores nationwide.”
Based in Boucherville, Quebec, Lowe’s Canadian business, together with its wholly owned subsidiary RONA inc., operates or services over 450 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores in a number of complementary formats under different banners, which include Lowe’s, RONA, Reno-Depot, and Dick’s Lumber.
The company said customers can receive their order the same day if ordered before 2 p.m. on weekdays and before noon on Saturdays. To take advantage of this service, the delivery address must be within the delivery zone of the participating store, and the articles selected when ordering online must be eligible for same-day delivery.
Any selected in-stock item available at the selected participating store at the time of order can be delivered with a weight limit of 1,475 Kg (3,250 lbs) per order.
All same-day deliveries are delivered by Lowe’s third-party partner TOOLBX.
Paris said the COVID-19 pandemic has presented Lowe’s with a situation where it can better respond and react to what customers these days are looking for in a retailer.
It is always looking at ways of going further to be more relevant for the customer.
“Being where the customer needs us and in a timely manner is really, really important. That will be a differentiator in the future – just being close to our (professionals), being close to our DIY (do it yourself). It’s really important in our industry,” said Paris.
“We think we can be the innovator in our industry.”
The list of stores offering same-day delivery can be found at lowes.ca, rona.ca and reno-depot.com.
In Canada, Lowe’s has more than 26,000 associates, in addition to approximately 5,000 employees in the stores of independent affiliate dealers operating under the RONA banner.
In April, Lowe’s launched new contactless pick-up lockers where customers can grab items at certain stores in Canada that they have purchased online.
Installed near the entrance of select stores, pick-up lockers are equipped with Bluetooth technology and a touchscreen where customers will have access to instructions on how to retrieve their online orders, and where they will scan the barcode that they received in their confirmation email. Customers will have up to seven days following the reception of that email to retrieve their purchases at their convenience.
At the time the initiative was announced, Tony Cioffi, Senior Vice-President, Stores at Lowe’s Canada, said consumers have embraced online shopping in a big way this past year and the retailer felt it was important to provide them with a quick and easy way to pick up their orders.
“If they have a product that fits within the dimensions of the pick-up locker the customer could get the option of picking up that product in that locker without actually interfacing with anybody and in fact not really touching anything,” said Cioffi.
“Our objective is we’re trying to create a consistent, seamless experience for our customers. So the more stores we can get this into the better it is obviously because it’s a great customer experience. It’s contactless and it’s efficient. Honestly, customers have been asking for this and with the ecomm business growing more and more obviously with everything that’s happened in the last year with COVID, it’s definitely something customers are excited about . . . Customers are looking for a seamless, omnichannel experience.”
