Lowe’s is equipping all of its U.S. stores with tools that let employees tap the business network of home remodeling site Porch to connect customers with local professionals, marking the expansion of a strategic partnership that launched in January.
As part of the expanded partnership announced today, employees in all 1,717 Lowe’s stores in the U.S. will be able to use in-store kiosks or a mobile app to provide referrals to local professionals with Porch profiles who provide services that Lowe’s doesn’t offer through its installation program. Lowe’s stores in the Carolinas and the Seattle area were first to get the tools in January.
“Only because it is going so well is Lowe’s making this one of their fastest national rollouts,” said Porch CEO Matt Ehrlichman. “Homeowners are connecting with great professionals and getting their projects done.”
Porch has been making waves in the online home remodeling space since its public launch late last year, serving up data on 90 million home projects and 1.5 million professionals, and boasting $6.5 million in funding.
The startup has shown a knack for forging relationships with industry players, inking exclusive data licensing agreements with a host of remodeling companies, and forming partnerships with Lowe’s, realtor.com and Home Innovation Research Labs, a subsidiary of the National Association of Home Builders.
As part of the company’s partnership with realtor.com, Porch powers a widget on realtor.com listing pages that lets consumers discover details about work that’s been done on homes they’re interested in, such as the type of project, when it was completed, what it cost and who did the work.