Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Marking one year since the first combined Do it Best and True Value market, Do it Best members and True Value retailers kicked off the 2026 Spring Market in Denver with a session led by CEO Dan Starr, who emphasized the company’s focus on innovation and integration.
During his opening remarks, Starr reiterated that the Do it Best Group is the “champion of independents” and the company is “better for your business.”
“Do it Best Group is the strongest, most capable growth partner in independent home improvement,” Starr says. “Our No. 1 goal is to help our dealers grow and achieve their dreams. We exist to help independent hardware stores, home centers and lumberyards grow—in your markets and into your next opportunity.”
Over the last year, both companies have worked toward integration, while still focusing on innovation.
“While integration has been happening, we haven’t paused innovation. In the background, for the last several years, we have been building,” Starr says. “Building systems, building platforms, building capabilities that position you to win. Integration strengthens the company, innovation strengthens your business, and we are committed to both.”
Ken Widner, executive vice president of information technology and CIO, shared that retail innovation only matters if it is serving customers, protecting margin, improving sell through, adding to profitable growth and making business easier to run. Investments like the new technology center in Dallas and partnering with top tech leaders like Adobe, Microsoft and Oracle are ways that the Do it Best Group is building a strong foundation in technology.
“That’s why our technology mission is simple: innovation, data intelligence and ease,” Widner says. “We’ve built an ecosystem that connects performance data, pricing, inventory, merchandising, e-commerce and store design.”
Another innovative focus for the company is its e-commerce platform, which Allison Flatjord, executive vice president of marketing and e-commerce, says is a model unique in the industry—simple without putting the heavy tech burden on retailers. For the Do it Best Group, e-commerce sales are up 38% YoY and order volume is up 39% YoY.
“A platform alone doesn’t grow sales, traffic does. Whether your brand is Do it Best or True Value, we actively invest in driving national online traffic to your local website,” Flatjord says. “E-commerce doesn’t replace in-person interactions, it creates more of them for you.”
Wrapping up the opening sessions, Do it Best president Nick Talarico and vice president of field sales Eric Lane provided additional insight into the newly launched Retail Pulse program.
“We believe Retail Pulse represents a fundamental shift in how we support independent dealers,” Talarico says. “It’s not simply a tool. It’s a different standard for how we partner with you. Retail Pulse delivers instant insight, clear action and proven results by using data to evaluate your store and identify opportunities to increase sales, improve profitability and optimize inventory.”
Each retailer’s territory sales manager has access to their Retail Pulse data and reviews that data, which is compared to a group of peers made up of stores of similar size, similar markets and serving similar customers.
“When your territory sales manager walks into your store, the goal is to find opportunities to help you run an even stronger operation and continue growing your business,” Lane says.
The Retail Pulse dashboard shares peer-group averages for five common key performance indicators (KPIs), including inventory turns, gross margin percentage, retail sales dollars, gross margin dollars and GMROI.
“This is the launch of a really powerful solution,” Talarico says. “We’re going to continue developing new iterations and improvements for years to come. These metrics are a first step.”
Data from Retail Pulse shows retailers where they need to focus and what areas are under-performing, over-inventoried and tying up cash. The program also provides recommendations to fix any issues, including boosting profitability, optimizing stock levels and streamlining inventory.
“Retail Pulse allows us to compare your performance against relevant peer groups, flag where inventory isn’t working hard enough, identify missing key items that are selling in stores just like yours, highlight where margin can be improved and identify opportunities before they become problems,” Talarico says. “We sit at the center of more independent data than anyone in this industry. The value comes in our ability to take that data, analyze it and turn it into actionable plans that are better for your business.”
