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Home Depot channel VP: 'We're going to come into the 90s'
August 5, 2009
Getting retail channels integrated is not easy, and that's precisely why so many retailers haven't fully done it yet. Home Depot's specialty channel VP Michael Cooper, who took the helm last year, understands exactly how fierce is the challenge before him and his team.
He spoke recently with Multichannel Merchant about the need to play catch-up, and the incredible amount of work and planning that it is going to require:
 | "We're going to come into the '90s, allow returns in the stores, and allow store gift cards to be used as tender online," Cooper said lightheartedly before he explained why the project is going to take some time. "It will require modification of 15 legacy systems," Cooper noted. "And that goes all the way down to the store's POS systems. But the more we can convince the powers that be that the multichannel shopper is more valuable than the store shopper, the easier it will be to get the job done." |  |
The powers that be, Cooper says in the interview, are fully on-board with his plan, especially CEO Frank Blake.
| "[Blake] says that if there's anything we screwed up in 2007 it's our e-commerce channel," Cooper said. "He says that 10 years from now, experts [will] look back and hope we figured out how to fix it. That gives me a clear understanding that he knows the importance of the channel." | |
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