Like Home Depot, Lowe’s to Open Direct Fulfillment Center

Here’s a change for Lowe’s: The company is opening a direct fulfillment facility to ship products straight to consumers in an effort to expand its online sales and speed up deliveries.

Rival Home Depot already operates three direct fulfillment centers that support its growing online business.

“We’re continually working to make doing business with Lowe’s easier for customers,” Brent Kirby, Lowe’s chief supply chain officer, says in a July 28 announcement. “Investing to build a new direct fulfillment center—the first of its kind for Lowe’s—allows us to offer customers more products online, consolidate multiple parcel shipments and ship purchases directly to customers faster and more efficiently.”

The distribution facility is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2018, and will be located near Nashville, Tennessee, according to the company. The direct fulfillment center will be more than 1 million square feet in size and cost about $100 million for the company to open. 

“One of the most technology driven and sophisticated operations the company has built, the center will ship parcel packages directly to Lowe’s customers and stores nationwide,” the company says.

Home Depot’s direct fulfillment centers are located in Troy Township, Ohio; Locust Grove, Georgia; and Perris, California.