Home Depot expands specialized store roles to boost customer service

Home Depot is changing who does what in the aisle. In 1,000 stores, the company has separated merchandising from in-store customer service so an apron associate can stay with the customer in front of them while dedicated merchandising teams handle more of the execution work behind the scenes, from keeping bays set to maintaining the selling floor.

That matters for the basics associates feel every day: who clears a blocked aisle, who resets a display after a busy weekend, who handles the handoff when a customer needs help finding product and the department still needs recovery work. Home Depot says the split is already improving customer engagement and the likelihood that shoppers will come back, and it expects the change to reach all stores by the end of fiscal 2026. The rollout started in late 2025.

The shift is built on a longer strategy. Home Depot created its Merchandising Execution Team, or MET, 15 years ago as an alternative to third-party vendor service groups, saying the goal was to keep shelves and displays in order with Home Depot associates and give the company more ownership of the store environment. In a 2023 company profile, Home Depot said MET started with about 2,000 associates and has grown to more than 25,000. The company says MET’s job is to standardize the selling floor and remove friction from shopping.

The practical question for store teams is whether that specialization actually lightens the load or just redraws it. If merchandising work moves farther away from the sales associate, the floor can be cleaner and customer-facing help can be more immediate. But the handoffs also get more important, especially during peak hours, when the store is trying to serve do-it-yourself shoppers and professional contractors at the same time.

Home Depot has paired the change with new leadership roles. In February 2026, it created an operations experience manager position to oversee customer service more broadly and drive uniform processes across stores. That role builds on the pro customer experience manager job introduced in fall 2024, a sign that the company wants tighter coordination around service, especially for contractor traffic that expects speed and accuracy.

The broader corporate message has been the same. On Dec. 9, 2025, Home Depot said its strategy centered on driving core and culture, delivering a frictionless interconnected experience, and winning with the Pro customer. The company also said it planned about 80 new stores over five years, then 15 to 20 stores a year after that plan ends in 2027.

The change is landing in a market that still has pressure points. Home Depot reported first-quarter fiscal 2026 sales of $41.8 billion, up 4.8% from a year earlier, with comparable sales up 0.6% and U.S. comparable sales up 0.4%. Ted Decker said demand was relatively similar to fiscal 2025 despite consumer uncertainty and housing affordability pressure.

That is why the store-floor redesign matters. JD Power’s 2025 home-improvement retailer study found 64% of shoppers said they would definitely shop again, up 9 points from 2024, and linked the improvement to employees who greet customers, offer help and keep stores clean. For Home Depot, the bet is that specialization will make those moments happen more often, not less. The real test will be whether the split speeds service without creating new gaps between the teams that stock the shelf and the associates who have to solve the customer’s problem in real time.