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?