Lowe’s Companies Inc. reported sales growth in the third quarter, driven in part by sales to professional customers on LowesForPros.com.

“The relaunch of LowesForPros.com in Q2 last year, which was really an informational site, into a commerce site, a transaction site, has really helped us grow,” Rick Damron, chief operating officer told analysts today on the home improvement retailer’s third quarter earnings call.

Lowe’s does not break out e-commerce or business-to-business online sales, but CEO Robert Niblock noted on a second quarter earnings call earlier this year that B2B sales continue to account for 30% of total company sales. That metric translates into B2B sales of $4.72 billion in the third quarter, up 9.5% from $4.31 billion in the same period last year.

The company launched an enhanced LowesForPros.com in 2015 designed to let professional customers make and track purchases on a computer, tablet or smartphone and to choose to pick up online orders in-store or have orders delivered directly to their business or jobsite, Lowe’s says. The upgraded website offers more efficient functionality enabling professionals to develop requisition lists, access purchase history reports and create custom catalogs. LowesForPros.com enables business customers to manage their spending by setting up a purchase approval process, and lets them process tax-exempt transactions.

For the third quarter ended Oct. 28 Lowe’s, No. 119 in the 2017 B2B E-Commerce 300, reported:

• Total sales of $15.74 billion, up 9.6% from $14.36 billion a year earlier.
• U.S. comparable-store sales increased 2.7%.
• Net income of $3.79 billion compared with net income of $7.37 billion in the same period last year.

Lowe’s launched a redesigned B2C website in the second quarter with improved functionality and content display on mobile devices, and improved product recommendations, site search results and click-to-chat capabilities. The redesigned site also offers larger product images and expanded product views, including video content.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2016 Lowe’s reported:

• Total sales of $49.23 billion, up by 7.4% from $45.84 billion a year earlier.
• U.S. comparable-store sales increased 3.9%.
• Net income of $2.43 billion compared with net income of $2.54 billion in the comparable period last year.

 

Sign up for a free subscription to B2BecNews, a twice-weekly newsletter that covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B e-commerce industry. B2BecNews is published by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes the monthly business magazine Internet Retailer. Follow Bill Briggs on Twitter @BBriggsB2B.

 

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