Neelima Sharma & Joe Cano Explain How Lowe’s Is Personalizing the Home Improvement Journey | NRF

Hello, everyone.

Welcome back.

We're still here out at NRF 2026.

This is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

And we are coming to you live from the fusion booth, number 4921.

We have two very special guests, one returning guest and one first time guest from Lowe's.

I'd like to introduce, standing right next to me first, Nelima Sharma, the SVP of tech technology for e commerce and omnichannel product at Lowe's.

And then next to her we have Joe Cano.

Joe is the SVP of digital.

Welcome back to you both and thank you for taking the time.

You, you've been all over nrf, so I'm really thankful that you can spend some time with us and our audience today.

Yes.

We're so excited to be here.

Yes.

Joe and I call ourselves the Digital Twins.

Oh, that's a good name.

That's a good name.

Especially for Lowe's.

I like that.

All right, all right, all right, all right, all right.

Well, like Ed said, we've interviewed you both before, so let's start with this because I think it's good to set the table on this question.

Who owns what amongst these Digital Twins?

Like, where do your words, where do your worlds, excuse me, overlap?

And you know, is there any creative tension as this digital twin relationship continues to evolve?

Neeliuma, let's start with you.

You know, actually, I don't know, we call our worlds to overlap.

I think we're like one world.

Yes, one world.

Okay.

We're just making the whole world together.

Like a black and white cookie.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right.

Exactly.

We're all kind of marching together so that we could actually go deliver on yin and yang.

Our goals, our objectives are OKRs, I.

Would say because our teams are so ingrained within each other.

Yeah.

It's.

Every decision we make is not a siloed of my decision and my team versus Nalima's team.

It's our team.

It's our, our teams are.

I mean, every single meeting we have includes all of our team members, which is a amazing.

And it's so funny that we find each, you know, ourselves completing each other's sentences.

It's kind of weird sometimes.

This is going to be a great interview.

This can be good.

But, but, but in all actuality though, just for the audience of our retail executives back at home, like one of you, like Lima, correct me from you focus more on the tech side of things.

Right.

So explain that.

Yeah.

So my team is responsible for building the technology, the architecture that goes with it, the experience, the product and the ux.

And you know, so that's what we built.

And Joe, you're the strategist.

Right.

So kind of strategy and front facing.

So everything you see on the website, so things from, everything from PDP images, you know, my team can create that within our creative studios as well as saying, hey, what do customers want?

What do they actually need?

And then going to Lima and saying, this is the customer problem that we have.

How can we actually build that tech to solve that?

And then we work together, together on building a roadmap to get there.

So that's the kind of differentiating kind of.

Yes.

Well, I want to talk a little bit more about the consumer.

Joe, you've.

You.

How long have you been now at Lowe's?

It.

I just hit my one remark about 10 years ago.

Exciting.

Okay, so in that time and then Nelima, in your time, how long have you been at Lowe's?

You.

Eight years.

Eight years.

Okay.

You both have seen a lot of change, I imagine, with how the.

Your customers shopping you.

I'd love for each of you to kind of pick apart maybe one of your favorite things or favorite examples of how, what, what your customers changing expectations have been in the last year to eight years.

And then also, you know, what you're doing to kind of accommodate that personalized experience for them, whether they're coming on to find something, they know exactly what they're looking for, or they're expecting you to know that they're renovating their bathroom and you need to have all the details.

So, Joe, maybe we'll start with you and then Noema, we'll go to you next.

Absolutely.

So I think the biggest thing in this year that I've learned is customers because they are so social first and socially led.

They're used to video, they're used to like little snippets of things.

They're used to getting things right at their fingertips.

And so for us, you know, we can't just have a static image on a pdp.

We actually have to have videos from our creator network.

We have to have videos across the board.

So you'll see that integrated throughout Lowe's website.

Overall, that's a huge kind of differentiating factor that we have.

Sure.

And that's probably the biggest step change I've seen customers kind of look at and that behavior and also, you know, with Milo and kind of how they shop, what things they're actually asking in Milo, like We've linked our videos from our YouTube there.

We also have voice to text on Milo as well now.

So again, we're just looking at what customers are kind of looking towards and their shopping behaviors and trying to make sure that all the tools that we are co creating make sense for that customer journey.

Right, right.

And Malima, what would you add to what Joe said?

You know, everything.

I'm just going to take a little bit of a historical perspective as well as to what the journey has been over the last seven or eight years.

I mean, if you think about it, when we came to Lowe's and it's.

We talk a lot about it in 2018, our second crashed on black Friday.

So from that perspective.

I can remember that.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, right.

Yeah, I didn't remember that.

Yeah, that's all.

I was like shopping for home improvement that year.

Yeah, not that day, but, you know, so if you think about it, we actually had to really start from the ground up and actually build commerce from scratch.

Create, you know, we partnered with Google.

We actually built our own commerce stack API first economy that eventually we actually ended up using in our stores as well.

And that allowed us to be able to create a continuous, frictionless, fluid experience across both digital and stores.

And now, of course, services in home selling and other channels that we were working through.

So that was the step number one.

Then the second step was, you know, we actually had to rethink how our website should be.

I mean, home improvement is a very complex business and, you know, so it's not one size fits all.

So.

So who is buying and what are they buying?

So if you think about it, we have pro customers, we have DIY customers.

Their needs are different, their considerations are different.

What they're looking from Lowe's are different.

How can the site be the same?

If you look at it architecturally, it's the same site that's powering it.

It's just personalizing based on who you are.

But then it's also helping whether you look for a dishwasher.

Your considerations are different, your buying journeys are different.

You're remodeling the kitchen.

Completely different thought process, completely different journey.

So who's buying and what are they buying?

So we actually personalized that whole experience and actually became a home improvement website and retail retailer because that's what we are.

So I think those are the two big things that we did before.

And then of course, as Joe mentioned, that with AI and conversational assistance and shopping assistance and AI assistance, Milo is really take.

I mean, our Customers are really adopting at pace that we, frankly, they're surprising us.

Our customers are surprising us.

Really?

Faster than you expected?

Yes.

And we love the kind of questions that they're asking us.

We were just talking about it that on Black Friday, our customers were, you know, they were standing outside the line and, you know, when we were giving out those free buckets to few customers, and one of the customers actually asked Milo, hey, milo, I'm number 22nd on the line, do you think I'll get this free bucket?

Do you think?

Wow, right?

So look at the level.

Very engaged customer, too.

Very customers.

And.

But that also tells us that, you know, our customers are ready for this AI revolution.

I love what you said there, too, because what it makes me think about is, you know, when you talk about E commerce, particularly in the digital age, not every product category is cut from the same cloth.

Like, you know, you guys aren't selling box macaroni and cheese.

You're selling dishwashers and home improvement items.

So, all right, you mentioned Google, too.

You guys have just recently expanded your partnership with Google.

Like, why?

What was the rationale behind that?

And how is that going to change the shopping experience?

Yeah, so I would say Google has been a trusted partner of ours for years.

Obviously, we love working with Google.

I've worked with Google many times in my past lives as well.

And really what we wanted to do was say, okay, what are some of the things that is going to be easier for the customer to engage with us and Google?

How do we partner better together?

I want to steal too much for Thunder, because it's definitely a big part of her remit as well, but really excited to see how it's going to come to life on Google.

So it's not just saying you have to come to Lowe's.

You just have the intent of looking at Lowe's and actually engaging with both of these great powerhouse retailers.

Yes.

Actually, you know, so as Joe said today, as you know, in our keynote that we just heard this morning between Sundar Pichai, he kind of talked about, and he unveiled Google's business agent.

And Lowe's is one of the few retailers who has actually unveiled a business agent, and it's actually now live.

The whole idea there is that the brand's voice, you know, the way we converse with our customers, that all is available on Google itself.

Right.

So if you are.

If a customer is on Google and they search for Lowe's, the button will be available where they can engage in conversation with sort of like the voice of Lowe's.

The knowledge of Lowe's and actually within that browser session, be able to not only get the product knowledge, get your questions answered, and actually eventually make just.

Have us do an integration.

Basically meet the customers where they are.

Exactly.

Well, and Joe, I want to talk about little bit about your role too, as you continue to think about how the, the customer shopping, where they're starting their shopping journey.

85% of sales are still done in store.

Is that, that's, that's the data that I have in front of me right here.

Yes, that is true.

So how do you connect those, how do you connect those things that are happening outside and inside?

Yes, it's a great stat.

Most of our sales are in stores, but 80% of those sales start up online.

Right, right.

So it's like Anchorman again, Second time today.

Right back at you.

So for me, it's again, meeting the customer where they're at.

Usually you don't go into a store and say, well, I'm just going to look at every refrigerator they have in the store and spend three or four hours.

I don't think anyone has the time, energy, or effort to do that.

And so for us, we're really looking at where that customer journey is and how to kind of ingress that.

How do we actually make it easier for that customer, no matter if they're shopping online or in store, Kind of go there.

So some things that we launched this year was like a visualizer tool.

So you can actually go in, take a snapshot of your bathroom.

Okay, Go in and actually then put that bathroom together.

And then you can save that.

You can go in the store, buy some product there, you can buy it all online, but it saves it for you on your own profile.

So things like that are going to be so amazing and easy.

And we're launching more of that.

More, more to come.

This year we have a fun kitchen visualizer as well.

So all those things are how we're bringing customers in no matter where they're starting their journey.

And we see that that younger consumer, the Gen Z, the millennial consumer, they are so online friendly and they want to go there first.

And something like, my parents might walk into a store first.

That new generation is not doing that.

They want to discover everything to drive them to a store.

And that's what you want to do.

Omnichannel or like a digital sales, really an omnichannel sales.

That's how I'm thinking about it on the go.

Right.

And a continuation of an experience in both environments.

And I imagine Nelima, the.

The Google partnership would also support some of the work that Joe was just talking about.

Yeah, actually, our kitchen visualizer.

We are leveraging the Nano Banana models and we're so it's a Nano Banana Banana.

Have you guys not heard of Banana Banana?

Google it.

So Nana Banana is now, you know, it's the official.

I want to slip on that peel.

But yeah.

All right.

So you'll have to edit that one.

No, it's fine.

Keep rolling.

It's good.

We're all friends here.

It's fun.

We're having a blast.

This is a great conversation.

Okay.

Yeah.

So the Nano Banana model.

So we're actually leveraging the Nano Banana model.

So you take a picture of your existing kitchen and just like Stitch fix, you may actually be able to say, you know what?

I like that.

I like that.

I like that.

We'll give you lots of options that we generate using AI and then we transform.

Transform your current space into what could be your possibility.

So your reality, your wish list.

Google visualizer tool.

This is.

We built the Visualizer tool using Nano Banana models.

Okay.

Okay, got it.

Yes.

Okay.

I was like, so again, strengthening that partnership.

And I think, you know, and to the other point that Joe was just making in terms of the omnichannel, I mean, think about it, the connectivity.

So if 80% of our customers, or even if they're shopping, they're actually using their app as they're walking down the aisle.

So we actually won this TV award for the best in store experience on our app as well.

So we're bridging that gap between physical and digital.

And what we call our app is like an amphibian app.

It becomes your store assistant when you're inside the store, and it becomes a true digital platform when you're in the house.

Right.

So.

So the whole idea is that it's actually guiding you along.

It understands you as you're walking through the aisles.

You can actually get product discovery.

You can understand how customers are talking about that product, the ratings and reviews on that product, the location of that product, comparison of that product to other products.

So all that is available to you.

Okay.

Okay.

So I know Joel loved this one.

So there's a lot to peel back there in what you just said.

But, and particularly I want to dig in on one spot for sure, which is search.

Yeah, it's been talked about.

We kind of touched the edges of it so far in this conversation.

But I want to know, how are you all personalizing the search experience and how are you evolving Evolving search both visually, because I think that's an important element of what you've been touching on as well as conversationally what you've also been talking about too.

So you want to go there.

Absolutely.

So personalization has been really important to us.

I was mentioning to you earlier that the same website supports both pro and DIY customers.

It supports, understands your intent, and then actually curates a shopping journey which is meant for that category and that customer versus, you know, a brown box type of a purchase.

So we're extending that, I think with AI.

One of the things that I feel really excited about is that our ability to personalize to that segment of one aspiration that we've all had for so long, and it just kind of felt difficult to get to.

I think we're closer to it than ever before.

The other dimension that I want to add there is that not only who the customer is, what they're purchasing, but I think the other really important entity in our business is the home for what are they purchasing for?

Right.

If you have a home in Arizona and it's a farmhouse, it's in rural area, and it's single story versus you have a condo in New York City, and that's your home.

So the needs are very different, the considerations are very different.

And if we don't understand that intent and that context, we can't meet you where you are.

So that is what we are also very much focused on in terms of.

So search results are actually taking all those signals into account and actually provide knowing your context, knowing your intent, it's surfacing results that work for you.

I actually personally feel that the endless scrolling, that that style of working is gone.

It's old.

Customers don't have the patience of that for that anymore.

They want their problem to be solved.

They want us to understand who they are, what they're looking for.

And I think so.

Our search is actually very much powered by our models, but also LLMs for that reason.

That's really interesting because I was actually just yesterday thinking to myself, I'm getting frustrated by that.

Even in ChatGPT, where it's like making me scroll through the answer and I just want the answering, yes, but Joe, what color would you add to what she just said?

Yeah, so what I would add is from a content perspective, we're actually changing the way that the website actually looks and feels.

So when you go from your search history versus where you look at it versus I look at it, it's all gonna look a little bit different.

So we're Actually personalizing content for you.

So if you're searching for a countertop, I'm not gonna serve you, maybe something for the bathroom.

I'm gonna say, okay, you're looking for a kitchen.

This is your intent.

So what you will see will be surfaced.

And all these algorithms are working in the background.

So if you're not engaging with that content, we're like, okay, we're gonna switch that up.

So all that kind of dovetails into some of our kind of vertical video.

We're also integrating on homepage with our creators.

So we're basically looking at you as a customer and trying to make sure that while search is that way, also the content that you see in the website almost feels tailored exactly for you.

And so that's what we want to cut out is no one has time, energy, or effort to be endless scrolling.

They want curation.

They want to say, Lowe's, what do you think I need for my home?

This is what I'm trying to do.

And we're here to help.

Love that.

How are you.

So how are you going to measure this?

I mean, how are you both looking at.

Okay, we know that sales are increasing because we personalize Ann's site to Ann and we know that she's looking at a kitchen and not a bathroom.

Like, what are you planning to do there?

And how do you really isolate that impact?

And Lima, let's start with you first.

Yeah.

So we are a very data driven organization.

We test and learn and we measure and we iterate.

I mean, that's kind of in our DNA.

So we've got a pretty robust process technology architecture and then measurement process along with it, that we isolate every change.

We actually do random split of traffic.

We, we watch how the performance is.

We have predetermined OKRs that we are expecting and then we measure.

And then not all experiments work, but the whole idea is that we are able to isolate every one of those changes and be able to attribute that to incrementality or degradation.

If sometimes that happens too.

But at the gist of it all, ultimately it's about customer LTR conversion and aov.

And then depending on the feature capability that we're building, one way is better than the other.

Right.

And personalization is really kind of that key.

Ultimately it's about personalization should lead to solving the problem faster, quicker, more accurately, more precisely, that means it should drive conversion, and if it drives conversion, it should drive sales.

Right.

And I imagine that the two of you having the relationship that you do, the digital twins that you Are that also kind of helps make sure that you guys are.

Are going after the same thing.

We can take a most complex thing that we need to align on over text.

Yeah.

We can distill it down.

Literally.

It's so easy for us.

Yes.

It's that the relationship has been probably one of the best that I've had.

So it's great to kind of see us partner together and say, here's a problem, let's solve it.

Here's how we're going to do it together.

And to add on to Nelima's point, like looking at that ltr, which is like a likelihood to recommend or ltv.

Was it lifetime out?

Yes.

So instead of looking things in short increments, I want to see is that customer coming back?

Are they engaging with us?

Are they talking about it with their friends?

And so we get all of those little signals to not only look at that.

Okay, is it ROI positive for this quarter?

Right.

How is this actually going to enhance that customer, to treat a customer like a real person?

Yeah, that's what we're trying to.

New metrics that make a lot more sense.

And I think.

I think the other piece that we're also working on is, as Joe mentioned, that 80% of the services are starting online.

So while a purchase may take place in store, the thing is, many times the discovery tools, the searchability on.com led to that purchase in the store.

And that attribution also is really important.

Right.

So we can't look at things in silo or in one channel.

Yeah, that's a very complicated problem.

All right, well, let's get you two out of here on this has been.

This is already in the running for my favorite interview of the year.

This is my interview.

Right.

But I think it's got a strong lead.

It's going to stay in that position for quite a while, I think.

All right, let's get you both out of here on this.

Joe, we'll start with you.

If you put your prediction hat on for me.

Yeah, right.

All right.

If you're looking out three years from now, how is the personalized experience at Lowe's different than it is today?

Yeah.

So what I would say is Lowe's right now, we're personalizing modules.

I would say it's a prediction.

You come to Lowe's and it is connected, completely skinned for you.

It is like Joe's store for Lowe's.

It is going to show you the exact product that I want so I don't have to actually search for Holy Grail.

I know that I'm going there, and it is going to serve up to me.

Joe, you need to buy this today.

Your kitchen was renovated five years ago.

I know that you like to be on trend, obviously, and so I need you to renovate that kitchen again.

That.

Those are the signals that's going to go.

That is where I see this going, where you don't.

You don't actually have to put any intent out there.

The intent then comes to you because we know so much about you.

Awesome Lima.

That's well said.

You know, so, yeah.

Anything to add, or is it just like, mic drop?

Should we just mic drop it?

No.

I have one more point, and the point is that, you know, see, our mission is solving problems and fulfilling dreams for the home.

Right, Right.

And personalization is, of course, core to that.

But I actually also feel that as AI and agentic AI is taking, you know, us by the storm, and it's actually moving at a pace that we never anticipated.

I really think that solving problems, I think Lowe's will be making more and more judgment calls on behalf of the customer.

That trust will continue to grow, and we are actually going to allow customers more time to dream and less entangled in solving problems.

And that's the goal.

No more lists to scroll through, just only discovery.

Only discovery.

Yeah.

Make your homes even more beautiful.

Yes.

Well, thank you both Nelema and Joe, so much for taking the time to join us here and to share your story with our audience.

Thanks again to Vujin for making all of our coverage here at NRF possible.

Stay tuned.

We have several more interviews over the course of the next three days to bring you, and until then, be careful out there.