Business Barometer

Home Channel News, Jan 10, 2000

Entering the home improvement jungle

Percent of 199 respondents to an Internet survey who selected each option below.

Amazon.com, the leading online retailer of books, CDs and other products, is expanding into the home improvement business. What impact will this e-tailer have on the industry?

Traditional store retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe's will eventually become dominant e-tailers of home improvement products also, wiping most of the current competition, including Amazon.com, out of their way. 26%

Amazon.com will find several other home improvement Web sites have a big head start, and these e-tailers have a better understanding of the home improvement business. 20%

Amazon.com will be dominant online, but it will have little effect on traditional brick-and-mortar store sales. 19%

Not sure what the effect will be. Too early to tell. 15%

By leveraging its 13 million-plus online customers, Amazon.com will quickly become the dominant seller of home improvement products via the Internet, and it will even be a threat to sales of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. 11%

Selling home improvement products over the Web will never be profitable for anyone. 10%

Source: NHCN on the Web. The Home Center News Poll is a voluntary survey of our Internet readers, and is not scientifically prejectable to any other population. We present these surveys to give our users an opportunity to share their opinions on particular topics. To participate in our weekly polls, visit www.homecenternews.com.