Home Depot doubles down on Pro customers in rivalry with Lowe's

A clean pickup, a correct quote, and a well-stocked aisle can decide whether a contractor comes back all season. That everyday execution sits at the center of Home Depot’s rivalry with Lowe’s and of its push into Pro customers, a business won on speed, inventory reliability, delivery, and associates who understand job-site pressure, not just shelf price. For department leaders and store teams, those basics are strategy.

Why Pro service matters on the floor

On June 25, the Home Depot-Lowe’s matchup highlighted a simple reality: professional customers remain one of the biggest battlegrounds in home improvement. Home Depot already holds a strong position with contractors, while Lowe’s is pushing more aggressively into larger Pro relationships, which raises the stakes for every store interaction. In practice, associates are not just selling products; they are helping solve a sequence of problems for customers who are balancing labor, deadlines, and materials that have to arrive in the right order.

Home Depot’s 2025 proxy statement says its strategy is to grow market share by providing a best-in-class interconnected experience and by growing sales to professional customers through a unique ecosystem of capabilities. For associates, that translates into the basics that Pros notice immediately: accurate stock checks, fast special orders, dependable will-call, and a team that knows how framing, roofing, drywall, and delivery timing fit together on a real job.

Store leaders already know from the sales desk and loading zone that Pro loyalty is built by repetition. If a contractor can count on a correct order, a knowledgeable associate, and a smooth pickup process, that contractor is more likely to return with larger baskets and more frequent visits.

The scale behind the strategy

The company’s first-quarter fiscal 2026 results show how much weight this business carries. Home Depot reported sales of $41.8 billion for the quarter ended in May, an increase of $1.9 billion, or 4.8%, from the same quarter a year earlier. The company operated 2,360-plus stores, 325 customer-facing warehouses, more than 1,300 SRS branches, about 16,000 delivery assets, and a professional sales force of more than 5,000 associates.

The Pro fight is not limited to the aisle with power tools or lumber. Home Depot’s network links stores, warehouses, specialty distribution, digital tools, and delivery assets into one operating system. When a Pro customer needs material moved quickly, the issue is not only whether the item is on the shelf, but whether the company can get it to the right place, at the right time, without turning the order into a delay on the job.

Management also drew a clear line around where the strongest demand is coming from. In the Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings transcript, Home Depot said sales to large Pros working on complex projects are growing faster than overall Pro growth. That matters inside the store because larger jobs usually require tighter coordination, more product knowledge, and fewer mistakes.

How SRS expands the reach

Home Depot has been deepening its reach beyond the traditional store network through specialty-distributor deals. On March 24, 2026, the company said SRS had expanded specialty-trade distribution across roofing and building products, interior and construction products, and landscape and pool, while also adding HVAC distribution through the acquisition of Mingledorff’s. That broadens the kinds of jobs the company can serve and gives Pro customers more reasons to keep their purchasing inside the Home Depot ecosystem.

The GMS deal pushed that further. Home Depot completed its acquisition of GMS through SRS on September 4, 2025, and said the transaction had an enterprise value of about $5.5 billion. GMS brought a leading distributor of specialty building products, including drywall, ceilings, and steel framing, which are materials that matter on larger, more complex projects. For store teams, the practical impact is that Home Depot can route more of a contractor’s spend through connected channels instead of losing the business when a job needs specialty inventory.

Roofing, landscaping, drywall, HVAC, and interior construction each create their own supply chain pressure, and the company is building an operating structure that can handle that complexity.

What it means for associates and department leaders

Home Depot’s 2025 annual report says knowledgeable associates and on-shelf availability are critical to the store experience. On the floor, that means a Pro customer expects the associate in the department to know the difference between what is available now, what can be ordered quickly, and what has to be staged for delivery or pickup.

It also means inventory accuracy is part of associate pride. A missing item does not just affect one transaction, it can throw off an entire crew’s day and damage trust with a contractor who may need to buy the same materials again next week.

Home Depot says it is the world’s largest home improvement retailer and reported fiscal 2025 net sales of $164.7 billion. It also said it has more than 2,300 retail stores across the United States, Canada and Mexico.