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For Home Depot, it's more about stocking quality products than keeping up with the latest trends.
- Home Depot is seeking to become a one-stop shop by enhancing its online decor selection.
- Business Insider spoke with merchandising EVP Ted Decker and SVP Jeanine Huebner about the home-improvement giant's strategy regarding decor.
- The two Home Depot executives spoke about how the company plans to handle decorating trends.
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Trends are overrated. At least, that's the stance that Home Depot is taking as it revamps its decor business.
The home-improvement retailer is enriching its online selection of bedding, furniture, and other decor product, in a bid to become a true one-stop shop for folks fixing up their houses. Business Insider spoke with merchandising EVP Ted Decker and SVP Jeanine Huebner about this push into new territory and their strategy for tackling the sometimes-fickle world of trendy decor.
Huebner said that the company will rely on its trend and design team, along with a group from Home Depot's Company Store subsidiary dedicated to textiles.
"They do look at what's trending: Is it bright colors? Is it more subdued? What's the influence?" she said. Huebner added that the company also relies on guidance from vendors and insights from industry-wide shows.
But, for the most part, Home Depot isn't too concerned about chasing down trends. That's simply not what its customers are looking for, according to Huebner.
"We will not lead in trend and design, because we really have more of that kind of a general customer and we don't hit on either side of the larger spectrum," she said.
Huebner said that, when it came to Home Depot's latest textile launch, the company didn't fret about getting "trend-savvy" and instead focused on the needs of their core general customer.
That doesn't mean that a leap of faith is out of the question for Home Depot, as Huebner said the company is keen to "see where our customers are going to allow us to take them."
"My goodness, we know that we'll have mistakes along the way," she said. "I guess we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't."
What's more, as Home Depot becomes more comfortable in the decor space, things might change.
"There are categories that we're much more mature in because we've earned that customer," she said. "I look at patio furniture. We have been in patio furniture for years, and we'll specifically get into trends as it relates to the question of whether our customers are ready for this trend."