May 5, 2009
Home Depot Shuts Down Spanish Language Site
Home
Depot is committed to serving Hispanic consumers; it’s just that it has
determined it doesn’t pay to try and do it online.
Last
week the home improvement retailer closed down its Spanish-language website
due to low traffic and disappointing sales numbers. The site, which mirrored
the company’s English-language site with 40,000 items available for sale,
was operational for four months.
Home
Depot discovered that roughly half of its visitors were from outside the
U.S. “They were not customers or
even potential customers, because we did not have stores there and we don’t
ship out of the country,” Home Depot spokesperson Ron Defeo told The
Wall Street Journal.
Despite
the decision to close its Spanish-language website, Home Depot is pushing
ahead with more bilingual signs in stores as well as hiring more Spanish-speaking
associates in an effort to better serve Hispanic consumers.
While it has closed
the site, there remains the possibility that Home Depot may resurrect it
in the future.
“All the information showed it was the right move, but we brought it
out during the holidays and in the middle of a recession,” Mr. Defeo told the Journal.
Discussion Questions:
Did Home Depot pull the plug too quickly on its Spanish-language website?
Does the failure of Home Depot’s Spanish-language site speak more to
the chain’s execution or the opportunity associated with Hispanic shoppers
online?
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This seems like an odd decision on the part of Home Depot. A huge amount of website traffic is geared toward drawing customers to the brick-and-mortar store by providing product information and pricing before they shop. So shutting down the Hispanic site seems disconnected from a key strategic purpose for any multichannel retailer.
It’s worth noting that the Lowes.com website provides easy links not only to a Spanish-language version but also to Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean versions. Lowe’s is apparently paying attention to the rapid growth of Hispanic and Asian consumer populations, especially as it continues to penetrate many of Home Depot’s key markets.
Maybe Home Depot ought to demonstrate more patience with its strategy.
This is a no brainer. If you have a web site designed to directly generate revenue and it doesn’t, then you have a problem. Either fix the site or take it down. Just ask pets.com. So what if it’s Spanish? If it was in English, would we even be having this conversation?
Now let’s wait and see if some consumer group starts spreading the word that Home Depot doesn’t like the Hispanic community.
Much better is if they had fixed the problem, rather than pull the site. Hispanic consumers overindex on digital communication and social sites…why not leverage that? Having trouble? Hire expert help to make it work.
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Liz Crawford nailed it.
I think that Home Depot may have pulled the plug too soon. But even more importantly, have they studied the shopping habits of the different ethnic target markets they intend to serve? I find that many retailers jump on the multi-language sign bandwagon, and declare they are now serving that market. What they neglect to do is understand the cultural nuances of how that ethnic group likes to shop. Do they have differences in the quantity or quality desired? Do they shop on their own or with the entire family in tow?
Lowe’s knows a greater proportion of the decision makers are women, while most men make the purchases and do the job. Is this the same for Hispanics? How about different ethnic groups’ preference for bargaining for a price rather than buying at the stated price? All these ethnic attributes must be qualified, rather than applying stereotypes.
So the core question is, today do a great number of Hispanics shop online for home improvement goods? If so, and HD is not getting the sales, something is wrong with HD’s site. If the Hispanic shoppers are not out there, it was right to pull the plug…for now!
Whether to multiply web sites by having one in English, Spanish and other languages is a tricky question. For the retailer, it creates complexity without necessarily increasing traffic or conversion. For the customer, it can be a sign that the retailer pays attention to you rather than lumping everyone together. Home Depot’s decision to pull the plug on its Spanish language web site after four months likely was driven more by timing than overall strategic direction.
Home Depot can’t fix it all. HD has control over only part of the experience and it is presumptuous to assume they have somehow “botched” it. Perhaps their target Spanish language clientele are not interested in or trusting of online shopping, have maxed out credit cards (like so many others), culturally prefer a more tactile hands on experience, have diminished access to a computer, or already get the information they want through the Home Depot English website version.
Home Depot insiders have access to data unavailable to us. If they are losing big money trying to maintain the Spanish site then they were right to pull it–for now.
I saw the article over the weekend and my immediate thought was that while laudable that they invested in a Spanish-language website, they had quite possibly failed to understand the consumer.
Home Depot claimed that the site was not producing sales and that many of the ISP addresses were foreign. This shows that they may be quite unaware of the retail commerce driven by family “back home” who ask family in the U.S. to purchase x, y or z and ship it to them! These can be very large and repeating transactions.
The article did not specify what the objectives of the site were–was it to generate revenue on a stand-alone basis? Is this the purpose of their General Market site? Were traffic and sales proportionately lower than for General Market after the same time period post-launch? Was there any increase in Hispanic-designated store sales?
In my experience, a greater ROI onus is often placed on multicultural efforts than on the general market. And while more acculturated Hispanics do over-index on the use of social media and internet, especially for entertainment, there is a cultural preference for face-to-face interaction, thus the site could very well have driven bricks-and-mortar sales.
Finally, the timing was bad. All sectors of the economy ground to a halt during the first quarter. After making an investment in creating the site, shutting it down seems premature given the overall economic climate.
Can anyone point to any US retailer that has been successful in a Spanish language site?
What I find is that too many US businesses have jumped on the bandwagon without any acknowledgment that the Hispanic community make speak Spanish, but their level of reading and writing is not the same as speaking.
This reminds me of the commercial where a Hispanic man goes into a car dealership and everybody does everything in Spanish. He then ends the commercial in perfect English testifying to how he was served in “his language.”
I for one believe that we have bought into the Spanish language hype in an overboard fashion. What is the education level of those whose here who speak Spanish but not English? It’s not politically correct to mention, but many can’t read or write in Spanish. And before someone comments, I do read/write/speak Spanish, including vosotros!
It’s not surprising the site didn’t work. The type of Hispanic most likely to go online for a Home Depot type product is going to be English savvy. There’s a lot of hype about Hispanics being into social networking, but most of that, at least in the U.S., happens in English.
Home Depot does a fabulous job with this consumer. Every store I’ve ever been in has Spanish signage everywhere and lots of employees who speak Spanish. And where I live, most of the people in the store are Hispanic. Of course, I live in Southern California.
I think it’s a bad decision. When you get to be a certain size on a national scale, sometimes you have to provide a service even if it’s not profitable or servicing the majority of your customers.
The Hispanic population is a growing population. Even if most Home Depot shoppers can function fine in English, providing such a service is just ‘nice’. I’m sure when many are tired at night, doing research or shopping, it is a nice option to switch to your mother tongue. Here in Canada, it would be almost criminal to not offer your web-site in French and English, even if the majority of your customers are outside Quebec. It’s just good practice.
This appears to be a short-sighted move. The issue was not the language “barrier” as much as it was the shopping experience on the dot-com site. I agree with Liz Crawford, they’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water.
If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Four months may seem like a short time, but if that timeline is in HD’s criteria and it failed, move on. They can always bring it back later.
As for Hispanics overindexing on the web, that means absolutely nothing. If it doesn’t translate into sales, it’s pointless.
Facebook has a humongous user base and frequency, yet it struggles to make money off all the ads, $1 gifts and other revenue generating widgets they add. In fact, last time I read about them they are loses of millions of dollars despite having a user base of 100 million or so and growing.
YouTube is the same. Tons of impressions and usage. Laughable revenue. Tons of losses no matter what they try.
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This seems like an odd decision on the part of Home Depot. A huge amount of website traffic is geared toward drawing customers to the brick-and-mortar store by providing product information and pricing before they shop. So shutting down the Hispanic site seems disconnected from a key strategic purpose for any multichannel retailer.
It’s worth noting that the Lowes.com website provides easy links not only to a Spanish-language version but also to Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean versions. Lowe’s is apparently paying attention to the rapid growth of Hispanic and Asian consumer populations, especially as it continues to penetrate many of Home Depot’s key markets.
Maybe Home Depot ought to demonstrate more patience with its strategy.
This is a no brainer. If you have a web site designed to directly generate revenue and it doesn’t, then you have a problem. Either fix the site or take it down. Just ask pets.com. So what if it’s Spanish? If it was in English, would we even be having this conversation?
Now let’s wait and see if some consumer group starts spreading the word that Home Depot doesn’t like the Hispanic community.
Much better is if they had fixed the problem, rather than pull the site. Hispanic consumers overindex on digital communication and social sites…why not leverage that? Having trouble? Hire expert help to make it work.
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Liz Crawford nailed it.
I think that Home Depot may have pulled the plug too soon. But even more importantly, have they studied the shopping habits of the different ethnic target markets they intend to serve? I find that many retailers jump on the multi-language sign bandwagon, and declare they are now serving that market. What they neglect to do is understand the cultural nuances of how that ethnic group likes to shop. Do they have differences in the quantity or quality desired? Do they shop on their own or with the entire family in tow?
Lowe’s knows a greater proportion of the decision makers are women, while most men make the purchases and do the job. Is this the same for Hispanics? How about different ethnic groups’ preference for bargaining for a price rather than buying at the stated price? All these ethnic attributes must be qualified, rather than applying stereotypes.
So the core question is, today do a great number of Hispanics shop online for home improvement goods? If so, and HD is not getting the sales, something is wrong with HD’s site. If the Hispanic shoppers are not out there, it was right to pull the plug…for now!
Whether to multiply web sites by having one in English, Spanish and other languages is a tricky question. For the retailer, it creates complexity without necessarily increasing traffic or conversion. For the customer, it can be a sign that the retailer pays attention to you rather than lumping everyone together. Home Depot’s decision to pull the plug on its Spanish language web site after four months likely was driven more by timing than overall strategic direction.
Home Depot can’t fix it all. HD has control over only part of the experience and it is presumptuous to assume they have somehow “botched” it. Perhaps their target Spanish language clientele are not interested in or trusting of online shopping, have maxed out credit cards (like so many others), culturally prefer a more tactile hands on experience, have diminished access to a computer, or already get the information they want through the Home Depot English website version.
Home Depot insiders have access to data unavailable to us. If they are losing big money trying to maintain the Spanish site then they were right to pull it–for now.
I saw the article over the weekend and my immediate thought was that while laudable that they invested in a Spanish-language website, they had quite possibly failed to understand the consumer.
Home Depot claimed that the site was not producing sales and that many of the ISP addresses were foreign. This shows that they may be quite unaware of the retail commerce driven by family “back home” who ask family in the U.S. to purchase x, y or z and ship it to them! These can be very large and repeating transactions.
The article did not specify what the objectives of the site were–was it to generate revenue on a stand-alone basis? Is this the purpose of their General Market site? Were traffic and sales proportionately lower than for General Market after the same time period post-launch? Was there any increase in Hispanic-designated store sales?
In my experience, a greater ROI onus is often placed on multicultural efforts than on the general market. And while more acculturated Hispanics do over-index on the use of social media and internet, especially for entertainment, there is a cultural preference for face-to-face interaction, thus the site could very well have driven bricks-and-mortar sales.
Finally, the timing was bad. All sectors of the economy ground to a halt during the first quarter. After making an investment in creating the site, shutting it down seems premature given the overall economic climate.
Can anyone point to any US retailer that has been successful in a Spanish language site?
What I find is that too many US businesses have jumped on the bandwagon without any acknowledgment that the Hispanic community make speak Spanish, but their level of reading and writing is not the same as speaking.
This reminds me of the commercial where a Hispanic man goes into a car dealership and everybody does everything in Spanish. He then ends the commercial in perfect English testifying to how he was served in “his language.”
I for one believe that we have bought into the Spanish language hype in an overboard fashion. What is the education level of those whose here who speak Spanish but not English? It’s not politically correct to mention, but many can’t read or write in Spanish. And before someone comments, I do read/write/speak Spanish, including vosotros!
It’s not surprising the site didn’t work. The type of Hispanic most likely to go online for a Home Depot type product is going to be English savvy. There’s a lot of hype about Hispanics being into social networking, but most of that, at least in the U.S., happens in English.
Home Depot does a fabulous job with this consumer. Every store I’ve ever been in has Spanish signage everywhere and lots of employees who speak Spanish. And where I live, most of the people in the store are Hispanic. Of course, I live in Southern California.
I think it’s a bad decision. When you get to be a certain size on a national scale, sometimes you have to provide a service even if it’s not profitable or servicing the majority of your customers.
The Hispanic population is a growing population. Even if most Home Depot shoppers can function fine in English, providing such a service is just ‘nice’. I’m sure when many are tired at night, doing research or shopping, it is a nice option to switch to your mother tongue. Here in Canada, it would be almost criminal to not offer your web-site in French and English, even if the majority of your customers are outside Quebec. It’s just good practice.
This appears to be a short-sighted move. The issue was not the language “barrier” as much as it was the shopping experience on the dot-com site. I agree with Liz Crawford, they’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water.
If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Four months may seem like a short time, but if that timeline is in HD’s criteria and it failed, move on. They can always bring it back later.
As for Hispanics overindexing on the web, that means absolutely nothing. If it doesn’t translate into sales, it’s pointless.
Facebook has a humongous user base and frequency, yet it struggles to make money off all the ads, $1 gifts and other revenue generating widgets they add. In fact, last time I read about them they are loses of millions of dollars despite having a user base of 100 million or so and growing.
YouTube is the same. Tons of impressions and usage. Laughable revenue. Tons of losses no matter what they try.