Lowe’s hasn’t shared any tool news with us for a while, and so I’ve learned to seek it out. Unfortunately, shopping Lowe’s online store often leads to much abundance of frustration and disappointment.
Let’s talk about some of the new tools Lowe’s added to their product catalog, along with news of their “Marketplace” expansion offerings.
Lowe’s carries tool brand such as Dewalt, Craftsman, Kobalt, Bosch, Klein, and others, but that’s not enough. They want to offer MORE!
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Great news – you can now buy this Silvel cordless impact wrench kit in Dewalt yellow and black-like colors.
Not a fan of Dewalt colors? They also have it in Milwaukee colors. Or is this also Craftsman’s color scheme?
Or, choose the same in Ryobi-like neon green.
This Hychika cordless drill kit doesn’t look to be a marketplace item.
But this Silvel cordless nailer in yellow and black is.
They’re selling an unbranded rotary hammer as a “0 screwdriver bit set.”
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Professional performance power is more powerful.
Or you can opt for this Svopes cordless rotary hammer drill, which is shown drilling into what appears to be metal with sparks flying.
Vessel is a great brand. But why is Lowe’s advertising this as having a “charger included” when the brand itself specifically encourages customers to “please use a commercially available USB charger,” which is not included with the kit?
The packaging says the same – they give you a charging cable, but not a USB charger.
You can now get this Yescom knockout punch set.
Amazon has the same import tool kit for less money.
And WhizMax tools.
Rock tumblers? Sure.
But search for “rock tumbler” and they’ll give you search results for water bottles.
This is not an “adjustable hole saw kit set.”
Grizzly is a well-regarded supplier of imported machinery, tools, and equipment. But this is not a metal shear.
This also is not a metal shear.
This is a metal shear, and thankfully Lowe’s helpfully conveys in the product title that it’s cordless.
This is not a cordless rotary tool.
This also is not a 1-speed cordless rotary tool.
This is also not a cordless rotary tool, but it’s a good thing Lowe’s reminds customers that batteries are not included.
I don’t know of any rotary tables that are battery-operated.
I like how this one from Grizzly is described as having “variable speed.”
So what’s going on here. It sure sounds like Lowe’s corporate said “let’s have 3rd party products fill the online catalog, and let AI run the show.”
Lowe’s:
Lowe’s Marketplace extends our aisle to better meet the needs of our customers, bringing them more of the products they want from brands they trust
Lowe’s already has quality brands such as:
Gaierptone
Siavonce
And Wrightmaster.
But that’s not enough.
It’s a good thing they now have marketplace items such as this Silvel cordless leaf blower in “Ryobi Green.”
“Ryobi Green” is literally in the product description!
Lowe’s product catalog is full of what I can only hope are AI-generated mistakes.
This is not a 1/8″ rotary tool chuck adapter.
And this is not a 1/32″ to 1/8″ rotary tool collet nut kit.
Home Depot has similar listings, but somehow their approach feels much different.
From a press release a few months ago:
[Lowe’s] is working with both new sellers and existing suppliers to offer their full product catalogs,
including products across price points to better serve both value-oriented and more affluent consumers.
Also Lowe’s: “We’re building the future of home improvement, today,”
They’re also “Building Beast City for Beast Games” (see also: Lowe’s Partnered with MrBeast, Not a Joke).
Lowe’s keeps saying things like:
Lowe’s Marketplace will feature products ranging the full price spectrum – from value to premium products – while also allowing Lowe’s to branch into new product categories across the home.
and
Lowe’s carefully selects its sellers and monitors their ongoing performance and product ratings to ensure products are aligned to Lowe’s brand and quality while providing a superior experience that customers know and expect from Lowe’s.
What’s careful or even deliberate about any of this?
Lowe’s has transformed their website into Amazon’s and Sears’ from over 10 years ago, but skipped the part where those retailers’ buyers filled their respective catalogs with unique and premium tools you couldn’t find anywhere else. Instead, Lowe’s seems to be filling their store with AI-created listings and lots of unknown brands available at every other marketplace.
This is not a premium shopping experience. But what do I know.
DO BETTER! Or maybe I should lower my expectations again.
Why does every major online retailer have to turn into a cluttered must-sell-everything marketplace?
In other news, Lowe’s early Halloween drop is here! While supplies last!
Scott K
“Lowe’s carefully selects its sellers and monitors their ongoing performance and product ratings to ensure” they are able to take advantage of the market served by the chaos of Amazon’s third party seller system. Fixed.
Lowe’s seems entirely focused on short term gains. It seems like Lowe’s is trying to squeeze as much profit as possible before all the blocks come tumbling down. Don’t their brand partners look at this and express concern? I wouldn’t want to sign a partnership with someone who’s going to place my products next to a lot of this similar-looking junk.
BG100
So much damage to brand partners. For example, I’ve never heard of Vessel brand screwdrivers, but if their listing is lumped in with ‘Gaierptone’ and ‘hychica’ then I assume it’s the same no name Chinese garbage as the rest of the search results. Lowe’s is actively damaging good brands with this third party Amazon style garbage.
Stuart
Vessel is good. My complaint there is that it seems Lowe’s is having a bad generative AI handle the listings.
“VESSEL Cordless Screwdriver 3.6-volt 3/16-in Cordless Screwdriver (Battery Included and Charger Included)”
Where does the 3/16″ come from?? Why do they call it a cordless screwdriver twice? Why does it say “charger included” when it doesn’t come with a charger?
TomD
I took it as saying that if the site has random letter Chinese brands, you’re going to assume anything you don’t recognize is also a yumcha brand.
So them cheapening themselves is cheapening their actual real brands they carry.
Robert
Just shaking my head. Does Lowe’s actually have executives? Or is it the first AI captured company? I notice their stock price has been on a downward trend for at least a year, not falling off the cliff, but a steady decline. So has Home Depot, but much less of a drop.
And “Our last early Halloween drop is here.”
“Last” implies there were prior early Halloween drops. When? Right after New Year’s Day? Must be Skynet paranoia.
Cotton Farmer
When I spot the use of ai in promotional materials for any product, it makes me want to buy it less. Text or image, I don’t like it.
Johann
Lowes Online platform has been hot garbage for a while. I’ll only use it when I’m comparing prices on a specific item. But I’ve also noticed the significant increase of Third Party Sellers, which makes we want to use it even less.
IMO Lowes has been circling the drain for quite some time now; I don’t see them being successful without some major customer-focused changes.
LGonToolGuy'd
Not to be an arse, but are they actually circling the drain?
How are stock prices doing? P/E, etc?
I haven’t checked.
Tim+E.
Have to wonder as well if Lowe’s is opening itself up to liability with having tools marketed as “Ryobi green”, even if just a colorway. Can’t imagine Ryobi is happy about someone taking their green and “cheap-ifying” it, and from a competitor potentially trying to cash in on their presumably productive and lucrative brand positioning with their actual partner. I’m sure there’s some legalese about Lowe’s not being responsible for these listings that lets them skirt any culpability for selling items mentioning “Ryobi”; Amazon has gotten away with it for quite some time, but they aren’t as directly a competitor to HD as Lowe’s is. Just seems like something a smart person wouldn’t have put Lowe’s in the position of doing in the first place.
Nate
That also means it shows up in search results for “ryobi leaf blower” or whatever. Utter scum, bad for customers.
Stuart
Retailers do all kinds of tricks with search results.
A search for “Milwaukee cordless drill” on Lowe’s site, for example, will bring up Dewalt, Bosch, Kobalt, and Greenworks.
Others will have sponsored results targeting different queries, and even landing pages indexed on Google, such as https://www.amazon.com/hercules-drill/s?k=hercules+drill&tag=toolguyd-20 .
Here’s something that happened last year – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/autozone-advertising-milwaukee-tools/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Eric
I think as long as they don’t claim the tool is actually made by Ryobi they’re ok legally. And even if TTI manages to get their products pulled from a site they’ll just switch to the next random name on their list and keep right on going. And the retailers aren’t going to put much effort into policing it themselves as long as they keep making their cut on every sale.
Stuart
I was surprised to see them actually describe it as “Ryobi Green.”
Scott F
That’s the part that feels open to libel, using specific reference to (what I imagine is) a trademarked color.
But who do they go after. Obviously Lowe’s is a logical target, but can they claim ignorance “because it’s a third party seller/not our listing”?
HOW is this the #2 player in the home improvement space…?
Joe H
Oh it’s definitely aligned with Lowe’s brand and expected quality and experience all right so Lowe’s is actually accurate about that. They are just staying on point with my Lowe expectations.
Joe E.
I don’t consider Lowe’s for my tool buying purchases. It’s almost as if they tell their suppliers (Kobalt, Craftsman, etc..) to supply the cheapest quality tools available to fill their SKU’s, but still sell them at a price point comparable to their competitors. Sorry, but I can find better quality Asian made tools at Home Depot, Harbor Freight and AutoZone.
Lowe’s has become the Dollar Tree of hardware stores.
Todd
If I’m on Lowe’s or Home Depot’s or ACE Hardware sites, I’m there for one reason, to see if they have a product in stock locally. I can not stand the sites like Ryobi that have pop ups after every click, no I do not want to take your meaningless survey.
Websites should load quickly and convey information. Most of the time I’m on these sites, I’m already in the store just trying to figure out what aisle I need to go to.
Stuart
Discount spinner pop-ups should also be banned. You always “win” the highest discount they offer, and then they require your email address, and then after you supply it then they tell you to enter a mobile number too so they can spam you with messages.
Jared
That’s nuts. I assume the approach is supposed to offer incremental sales Lowes wouldn’t otherwise achieve – but who is buying generic no-name tools at higher-than-Amazon pricing just because they happen to be on the website?
Maybe this is so low-cost and low-risk that Lowes doesn’t care if bloating their listings 300x only makes a few dozen extra sales per month, except that surely makes their website less navigable to consumers.
Scott F
But now management can report X00,000 more listings with a 0.00000Y% conversation rate at average Z% margin to show investors how much money they are going to be RAKING IN from these listings and taking AWAY from Amazon!!
Hon Cho
” Or maybe I should lower my expectations again.”
YES
PW
I noticed some of this the other day – I happened to check out an arbor press on Lowe’s website. They had a Vevor arbor press that was incorrectly listed as a “drill press”, and even categorized under “drill presses”.
The actual product seemed like it was probably a “typical” low end imported arbor press – which is what I was looking for. But the inability to even categorize and label it correctly was certainly a turn off.
MattT
Every time a corporation turns their website into a “marketplace” the user experience gets worse. Amazon, Newegg, Target… all worse now. The difference with Lowe’s is it didn’t have as far to fall.
Aram
Depending on what browser you use, you may be able to find plugins that nuke all “marketplace” listings.
…for example, I have one that automatically hides all “marketplace” items on the Walmart website, so I never even see those listings (it’s called “No Third Party Seller”, iirc).
Kinda telling (and mildly depressing) that it’s reached the point where people are writing software to block these corporate shenanigans.
MattT
Thanks for the heads-up on that! I will see what’s out there.
Stuart
Generally you can find a URL code to filter search results and bookmark that without funneling everything through 3rd party intermediaries.
Mark M.
After reading this I tried hard to think of retail website that’s gotten better over time, which you think they would what with iterative improvements and all. eBay? Nope. Amazon? Also nope, have to sift through mountains of garbage to find legit items (although less bad than others). Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Lowes? Nope. My tinfoil hat theory is the push for growth of all metrics trumps quality and user experience. Who cares if you hate the website for good reason, sales were up 2% last quarter.
Same thing in-store, and Lowes and HD are equally guilty. Aisles filled with shirts, soaps, recliners, kids tents, you name it. I literally cannot push a cart with pipe or lumber- it’s what I can carry on my shoulder. And God help us all come holiday time.
Tucker
It’s not better, but McMaster’s website has not changed in forever. Their search can take a bad description of what I want and somehow find it among the billion and one things they sell. And if I order by 5 it’ll probably arrive the next day.
Stuart
McMaster Carr is an industrial supplier with a curated catalog focused on solutions.
Lowe’s is a retailer for consumer products where low pricing is a primary factor in purchasing decisions.
Bonnie
Honestly I doubt this is all AI. This smells like underpaid mechanical-turk-like outsourcing or crappy scraping scripts trying to auto import from AliExpress or something.
Stuart
Last year they described a fiber optic tool kit as a household tool set – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/lowes-online-catalog-growing-rant/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I didn’t realize that was exactly one year ago.
CJ10
Lowes is the last place I will buy anything online. I have to be desperate. Ther website over the last 5 years has just become trash while the HD site has just gotten better.
LGonToolGuy'd
Lowe’s has opened their storefront to third part sellers with what seems like no limitations. I have bought lightweight camping gear and cat food on their site because they allowed it to be shipped to store for free and saved me $7 compared to WM/Amazon, etc.
Cat food? Camping gear? Fancy froo-froo decorative pillows at Lowe’s? Why?
That 20% work whatever they take – but now their site is insufferable to use.
Stuart
Home Depot also has plenty of 3rd party items. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times you won’t know until a tool get drop-shipped directly from a brand. I couldn’t tell you why there’s such a difference in the user experience.
Katie
Can the Silver drill in Ryobi green be used with Ryobi batteries? How about the DeWalt Yellow. (Sarcasm)
It looks like they are selling products from China that make knock-offs of tools developed and made by the major manufacturers. But Harbor Freight has that niche and is successful at it, plus they’ve upgraded. Made in China tools have gotten better, no doubt about it. But they are not the same and how long will the batteries be around and is there a decent lineup of tools by Silver.
Maybe they are advertising on TikTok and trying to cultivate a new generation of customers. It’s all so tacky. Sometimes executives are hired to devalue a company, I’ve read some books about this, it’s a financial strategy, not a practical or healthy one. I’m wondering if this might be the case here.
In any case, for some people in small towns, their Lowe’s store may be the only option. In one place I often stay, that is the case. Those folks work extra hard and I’ve been impressed with the service at that store. They are swimming against the tide of the larger Lowe’s, though.
MT_Noob
I’ll take honest-to-goodness human errors over AI stupidity any day.
Speaking of which, I think a human error snuck its way in:
“Buy this is not a metal shear.” – I think it should have been “But this…” instead.
I mention this not to poke fun, but because I know you like to correct errors when they occasionally sneak in.
Stuart
Thank you! *fixed* The only thing worse than a missed typo is a missed typo that I find months and years later.
It bothers me how many daily reminders there are that many retailers, tool brands, and other companies are not acting with their customers’ and end users’ interests in mind.
Can anyone look at all of the new listings cluttering up Lowe’s product catalog, along with what I hope are AI errors, and think “that was a great idea, we’re better for it?”
MT_Noob
To me, these decisions often feel like they are using the good old panic strategy of “something must be done, so let’s do this” despite having no real plan or strategy. However in the end they can say they “took action” during this new exciting world of AI.
Stuart
Or to appeal to investors.
MT_Noob
Exactly. You nailed it.
Trevor
It really was to be expected. Is just following its online life cycle.
See:. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
ElectroAtletico
“Mr. Beast”. Really Lowe’s?
Hon Cho
Ran across this article
[redacted]
Lowe’s CEO warning workers that AI will power the business at the corporate level.
Stuart
That “magazine” has putting out garbage content, please don’t link to them here.
Lowe’s and other companies say a lot, but you have to really look at what they do. Lowe’s tends to jump on buzzword trends, such as “metaverse,” “NFT,” and now AI.
That said, the word from employees is that Lowe’s has been outsourcing more and more labor to overseas firms, such as IT services to support store operations.
AI is like everything else, where garbage in leads to garbage out.
Nearly every company is overdoing it with AI right now.
Ian
I work in IT for a major Telco, and the numbers of customers who ask us to upgrade their networks to be “AI ready” is quite worrying.
For those of you not in networking, the AI heavy lifting is done at the computer server end, it doesn’t necessarily need more bandwidth, because AI doesn’t generate more traffic, but more people using it can.
JG
After just reading this post I went onto the Lowe’s App and it currently says “We’re Fixing It. Sorry our app is temporarily unavailable.” I’m more team orange but I’ll shop at whatever one is closer or convenient unless it’s a specific product I need and one or the other has it, especially when it’s close to a jobsite. I agree I’m getting tired of all these companies having “marketplaces”.
Jim Felt
Hmmm. Yesterday evening I decided I “needed” yet another variation of the Little Giant flat folding ladders I use personally. AKA no one else can misuse them.
I Googled the various models to measure for suitability and then looked to source one.
Believe it or not one local Lowe’s was both the cheapest I could find anywhere online and had exactly one in stock. I was shocked.
I ordered and paid for it last night. Drove over to the store this morning and to my mild surprise it was the correct model. Perfect condition. Best price and no wait. Will miracles never cease?
Doresoom
Not only are they flooding their website with garbage, but their search function is horrific as well. The extra noise will just make it even harder to navigate to what you’re actually looking for.
I’ve had to pull the Google trick of “site:lowes.com mysearchterms” to find things on their website before, because just typing those same search terms into Lowe’s search bar doesn’t turn up what I know they carry.
MM
That’s one of my big frustrations about Home Depot and Amazon’s search tool as well. You can search for an exact SKU or product name and that result is buried far down in the results even though they stock that exact item. NAPA auto parts is very bad about this as well, even worse than those two.
Etsy’s search tool tool is especially frustrating, as users are unable to exclude things from the search using the minus sign. That used to work but they have currently disabled it. Depending on what you are looking for the search tool may be completely unusable because of that.
Sometimes I really wish websites still used strict old-school boolean searches without any sort of correction or attempt to ‘fix’ my spelling. I’d rather have that than modern systems which insist on trying to be helpful by correcting what it perceives to be mistakes. Yesterday I was searching Ebay for “kataba”, which Ebay kept auto-correcting to “katana”, and “ryoba” which was auto-corrected to “Ryobi”. No, I did not misspell the names of a samurai sword or the neon green tool brand, I was searching for hand saws and I didn’t misspell anything. Just search for what I typed please.
Stuart
I’ve learned that search is very difficult to get right.
For example, if you go to Makita’s site and search “xgt impact driver,” it’ll tell you there are 0 items found. Searching for “0910” on Home Depot’s website, as I wanted to see the listing for Milwaukee’s M18 vacuum, showed me the results for “0-10”.
Cody
If I’m looking on Lowe’s or Walmart’s websites–I’m not looking for stuff to order, I’m looking for what I can get NOW, at my local stores. I don’t need umpteen thousand pages of Chinese alphabet soup crap, when there’s only like 3-4 choices actually available at my store.
Honestly, instead of alphabet soup crap, Lowe’s should start offering Euro and Japanese tools as online exclusives. Heck, Tractor Supply even has Vessel!
Heck, 3/4 of the “Daily Deals” lately have been weird off-brand tools they don’t even sell in the stores.
With both, even when I filter to just be “in store” I’ll still be stuck with tons of “sponsored listings” for this alphabet soup garbage.
Lowe’s as a store–I hate it. Harbor Freight (and Rural King) covers the tool angle, Ace (as well as a family friend who is a contractor that also owns a B2B building supply store) can get me what I need. Lumber–two friends have sawmills, and will give me some nice lumber from trees they cut off fences. Even in store–“lifestyle” type items are taking space away from bread and butter. Anything else–Applied or State Electric (on the same street as Ace). I wish Fastenal hadn’t closed its doors to walk-in customers.