New York, NY, Mar. 4--The big home-improvement retailers are increasingly focusing on female consumers, and with good reason according to Motley Fool.
The home-improvement market is huge, estimated at a quarter of a trillion dollars, with roughly a quarter of that (more than $50 billion) being purchases made by women.
Lowe's has estimated that roughly half its customers are women, while Home Depot says that about 55% of its non-contractor customers have no Y chromosome.
The private ACE Hardware company, which operates smaller stores, puts its figure at 42%, but notes that women tend to spend 30% to 40% more per visit than male customers do.
Lowe's has found that about two-thirds of its female customers own power drills, while a Home Depot survey found that half of women polled want to learn to use a power tool. (It also found that 68% of the women would rather work on home improvements than shop.)
Of those women who are not doing actual home-improvement work themselves, many remain very influential. A Lowe's study found that women initiate 80% of all home-improvement projects.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that hardware retailers big and small are courting women -- with features such as brighter lighting, wider aisles, instructional workshops, and more.
