CompetitorsNarrow moat

Home Depot (HD) — moat facet

Home Depot's rivals are a smaller twin, sellers without stores, the supply houses it joined by acquisition and its own suppliers.

Home Depot's 10-K names no competitor. It describes an industry that is "highly competitive, highly fragmented, and evolving"1, and a list of rivals that runs from other home improvement retailers, hardware stores, electrical, plumbing and building materials supply houses and lumber yards to exclusively online sellers and manufacturers that sell products directly2.

Competitors by kindHead-on rivalLowes: revenue $90.43bn vs $169.18bnSellers without storesonline and marketplace rivalsSupply houseswhere SRS and GMS earn 2.5%Suppliers selling directno foreign country above 10% of purchasesTransactions, Q2 FY2026-1.0%Home Depot 10-K fiscal 2025 and Q2 release; stockanalysis; CNBC
Four kinds of rival.

The four that matter are four different kinds of relationship. Lowe's is the one head-on rival, the same format selling the same goods to the same homeowners, and a much smaller company. The online sellers compete on price and convenience without owning a store, which is why the 10-K worries about AI tools that facilitate competitive entry, price transparency, and comparison shopping3. The supply houses are the rivals Home Depot chose to join rather than fight, by buying SRS and GMS. And the manufacturers are suppliers who can sell around the retailer whenever it suits them.

The stores win most of these contests on breadth and location; the distributors are in a fair fight at thin margins. Comparable transactions, the measure of whether the stores are winning trips, fell 1.0% in the second quarter of fiscal 20264.

The list of rivals in the 10-K is long for a reason. For some products Home Depot also competes with specialty design stores, showrooms, discount stores, paint stores, warehouse clubs and providers of tool and equipment rental5. It says it competes primarily on customer experience, price, quality, product availability and delivery options6; Pros also look for dedicated sales support, competitive credit and pricing options, project planning tools and reliable deliveries7. Most of those are things a large store network does well.

What the list does not contain is a single rival with Home Depot's combination. Lowe's has stores but a smaller Pro business; the supply houses have Pros but no stores; online sellers have neither. The competitive advantages Home Depot names include scale, its premier real estate portfolio and its deep relationships with Pros8. Each rival matches one and lacks the others.

The contest to watch is traffic. A return to growth in comparable transactions would say Home Depot is taking trips from its rivals; continued declines while ticket rises would say it is holding customers by price alone.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

Transactions still falling 1% a quarter; share of trips not growing.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Comparable transactions, latest quarter
-1.0% (Q2 fiscal 2026), 443.2M transactions

Trips won against rivals; continued declines while ticket rises mean customers are held by price, not preference.

Source: Home Depot Q2 fiscal 2026 results release ↗
Dig deeper
DIG DEEPER 01
Lowe's: The Twin at a Third of the Value
Lowe's sells the same goods in the same format and is worth about a third as much as Home Depot.
DIG DEEPER 02
The Sellers Without a Store
Online sellers win the light, standard item on price, and Home Depot fills half its own online orders from stores they cannot match.
DIG DEEPER 03
The Supply Houses the Distributors Now Fight
In roofing, wallboard and pool supply Home Depot competes as one distributor among many, and earns 2.5% on sales.
DIG DEEPER 04
The Suppliers Who Sell Direct
Home Depot's suppliers can sell around it, which caps how hard it can squeeze them on a $110 billion purchasing bill.
References
  1. ReportedIt describes an industry that is "highly competitive, highly fragmented, and evolving", and a list of rivals that runs from other home improvement retailers, hardware stores, electrical, plumbing and building materials supply houses and lumber yards to exclusively online sellers and manufacturers that sell products directly.
    The Home Depot Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (the 52 weeks ended 1 February 2026) - Item 1 business: competition, online and the interconnected experience. — Fiscal 2025 · publ. 18 March 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedIt describes an industry that is "highly competitive, highly fragmented, and evolving", and a list of rivals that runs from other home improvement retailers, hardware stores, electrical, plumbing and building materials supply houses and lumber yards to exclusively online sellers and manufacturers that sell products directly.
    The Home Depot Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (the 52 weeks ended 1 February 2026) - Item 1 business: competition, online and the interconnected experience. — Fiscal 2025 · publ. 18 March 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe online sellers compete on price and convenience without owning a store, which is why the 10-K worries about AI tools that facilitate competitive entry, price transparency, and comparison shopping.
    The Home Depot Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (the 52 weeks ended 1 February 2026) - Item 1 business: competition, online and the interconnected experience. — Fiscal 2025 · publ. 18 March 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedComparable transactions, the measure of whether the stores are winning trips, fell 1.0% in the second quarter of fiscal 2026.
    The Home Depot second-quarter fiscal 2026 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - sales, comparable sales, transactions, ticket, earnings, reaffirmed guidance and the balance sheet. — Q2 fiscal 2026 · publ. 18 August 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedFor some products Home Depot also competes with specialty design stores, showrooms, discount stores, paint stores, warehouse clubs and providers of tool and equipment rental.
    The Home Depot Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (the 52 weeks ended 1 February 2026) - Item 1 business: competition, online and the interconnected experience. — Fiscal 2025 · publ. 18 March 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedIt says it competes primarily on customer experience, price, quality, product availability and delivery options; Pros also look for dedicated sales support, competitive credit and pricing options, project planning tools and reliable deliveries.
    The Home Depot Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (the 52 weeks ended 1 February 2026) - Item 1 business: competition, online and the interconnected experience. — Fiscal 2025 · publ. 18 March 2026 · source ↗
  7. ReportedIt says it competes primarily on customer experience, price, quality, product availability and delivery options; Pros also look for dedicated sales support, competitive credit and pricing options, project planning tools and reliable deliveries.
    The Home Depot Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (the 52 weeks ended 1 February 2026) - Item 1 business: competition, online and the interconnected experience. — Fiscal 2025 · publ. 18 March 2026 · source ↗
  8. ReportedThe competitive advantages Home Depot names include scale, its premier real estate portfolio and its deep relationships with Pros.
    The Home Depot Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (the 52 weeks ended 1 February 2026) - Item 1 business: competition, online and the interconnected experience. — Fiscal 2025 · publ. 18 March 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 26, 2026