Building the marketplace of tomorrow: How Lowe’s is reshaping the future of home improvement

A decade ago, home improvement shopping meant multiple store visits, limited brand selection, and inspiration drawn largely from catalogs. Today, consumers operate in a fundamentally different environment. They expect ideas, products, and services to move seamlessly across digital and physical touchpoints. Yet for many, the journey from imagining a renovation to completing it remains fragmented, filled with decisions, product comparisons, delivery coordination, and installation hurdles.

For most consumers, home improvement is still defined by friction: too many steps, limited choice, and gaps in coordination between online and in-store experiences. That’s the challenge Lowe’s set out to solve.

Lowe’s Marketplace is re-imagining home improvement as a connected, empowering journey that makes shopping for the home as seamless and inspiring as the vision itself.

When expectations outpace the traditional model

The traditional retail model is built for a different era, one centered on owning inventory, deciding assortments, managing every transaction. While effective for decades, that approach is increasingly being tested by how consumers shop today. They want the convenience of ecommerce but also the trust of expert retail. They want to browse online, touch in-store, and have products delivered and sometimes installed without effort. When these expectations collide with rigid systems and limited assortments, friction becomes inevitable. For large categories like home improvement, where products are bulky, custom, or technical, these frictions multiply.

Lowe’s recognized that the future lies in moving from a product-centric model to an ecosystem model as it creates an opportunity to bring together customers, sellers, and technology to curate a seamless, end-to-end experience.

The vision: A marketplace built for scale and simplicity

The vision behind Lowe’s Marketplace is straightforward: create a platform where scale reduces complexity rather than adding to it. As assortments expand and new sellers join, the customer experience should become easier and more intuitive, not more overwhelming.

That balance of breadth and simplicity is what distinguishes the Lowe’s Marketplace model. At its core are capabilities designed to work seamlessly in the background. AI-driven content enrichment ensures product pages are complete, accurate, and confidence-building. Algorithmic buy-box selection promotes fair competition while surfacing strong customer value. Dynamic delivery promises to enable better planning, and streamlined mail-in returns simplify categories traditionally burdened by complex logistics.

Individually, these capabilities address specific pain points. Together, they create a connected Lowe’s Marketplace where inspiration and execution come together without the usual barriers, one designed not only to scale, but to elevate the entire home improvement journey.

Building the engine: Technology and partnership

Over the past five years, Lowe’s has made a deliberate choice to invest in the fundamentals, quietly rebuilding Lowe’s technology from the ground up. At the time, the destination was not always clear. What we were really doing was laying roads through shared platforms, common services, and trusted data that teams across the org could depend on.

Only in hindsight do the dots connect. Today, that foundation operates as an information superhighway, enabling teams across digital and stores to move in the same direction, at the same speed, with the same understanding of the customer. That is why Lowe’s Marketplace came together so quickly.

To bring this vision to life, Lowe’s partnered with Mirakl, a global leader in marketplace infrastructure. The collaboration gives Lowe’s a robust, scalable backbone one that streamlines seller onboarding, automates catalog operations, and integrates seamlessly with seller aggregators. With these foundational capabilities in place, Lowe’s can grow its assortment at speed while ensuring every listing meets the quality and consistency customers expect.

What this partnership really unlocks, however, is focus. By offloading the heavy lifting of marketplace infrastructure, Lowe’s internal teams can concentrate on the differentiators that set our marketplace apart: algorithmic buy-box logic, advanced content enrichment, catalog governance, and unified tools that make selling on Lowe’s intuitive and efficient.

Mirakl accelerated a journey that was already underway. When the groundwork is right, speed is no longer something you chase; it becomes how you operate. This approach is already earning recognition. At the Mirakl Summit in July 2025, Lowe’s received the “Fastest to Launch” award, underscoring the power of tight collaboration between our business and technology teams.

A lesson in omnichannel thinking

The marketplace of tomorrow is not a digital replacement for stores; it’s the connective tissue between online and offline. Customers can discover a product online, check its availability in a nearby store, or choose pickup, delivery, or installation at their convenience. Each channel strengthens the other through shared data, unified inventory, and consistent content.

This omnichannel model transforms home improvement from a series of transactions into a continuous relationship. It’s not just about selling more items; it’s about helping customers bring their ideas to life faster, with fewer barriers and greater confidence.

For customers, the impact is clear: more choice across brands and price points, greater confidence through enriched product information, and flexibility to shop how and where they prefer. For sellers, the marketplace creates a powerful growth channel. Automated onboarding, data-driven tools, and AI optimization make it easier to scale, while Lowe’s trusted brand and customer reach enable a richer, more diverse assortment for everyone.

Reimagining ‘everything home’

The future of retail will not be won by those who simply add more products or more channels. It will belong to those who eliminate friction, connect ecosystems, and design experiences around how customers actually live and build.

Lowe’s Marketplace is our answer to that future. By combining intelligent technology, trusted partnerships, and an omnichannel foundation, we are transforming home improvement from a series of transactions into a connected journey, one that empowers customers and unlocks growth for sellers.

For the industry, the message is clear: Marketplaces are rapidly becoming foundational to modern retail. They are the operating system for scale, speed, and relevance in a world where customers expect everything to work together. Those who build ecosystems will define what comes next. The future will favor those designed for connection, scale, and adaptability.

Mayur Purandar is Senior Vice President - Technology, Merchandising and Supply Chain, Lowe’s India.