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Lowe's goes small in the Big Apple, new store format designed for city dwellers

Lowe's is going small and tapping interactive technology to make its first New York city store as customer friendly and engaging as possible.

August 7, 2015

Lowes is going small and tapping lots of interactive technology to make its first New York city location as customer friendly and engaging as possible.

Come Sept.10, the home improvement giant will open its first urban-format store in Manhattan, its actual first foray into New York City’s Upper West Side, and it hasn’t made the move without lots of planning in design, location choice and tools for enhancing the store experience. The store will open after a year and a half of planning and research.

"This is our first foray into Manhattan, and the first time we've been this deep in an urban environment in a true walking city," Jonathan Luster, Lowe's VP, market and concept development, told FierceRetail.

The focus is to provide the city dwellers with appropriate size home products, supplies and organizational home solutions given the smaller living space of city residents.

"This is a brand new format, so you'll see things like small appliances that are in our big-box stores, but you won't see things like lawn tractors," Luster said.

Lowe’s is integrating interactive customer technology, including  PCs with touch screens, so in-store customers also have access to what the home improvement company is selling on its website. A huge interactive display in the appliances section offers customers details on appliances and provides everything from reviews to product data as the location doesn't provide room for lots of actual appliances.

"We think it gives a better experience than just looking at a small screen. It's life-sized, scaled correctly, and it really helps extend our offering. It's a really cool way for the associates to extend what they have on the floor into the online experience," Luster told FierceRetail.