Home Depot aims to build social media followers with deals

The Home Depot Inc. is offering consumers who Like the retailer on Facebook exclusive offers every Friday throughout the spring as part of its Spring Black Friday Event.

The promotion runs through May 27.

The deals, which will be featured on the retailer’s Facebook page, will have prices that are 50% to 75% off regular prices on gardening, lawn care and patio items.

To make a purchase a consumer clicks on a “Buy Now” button that is within the post announcing the deal. The retailer then presents the shopper with a broader product description along with a “Checkout Now” button. The consumer can then complete the transaction without leaving Facebook. 

Those prices will differ from the prices listed in the Home Depot’s bricks-and-mortar stores and HomeDepot.com.

That stands in contrast to the Home Depot’s typical pricing strategy in which the retailer’s web site checks the location an online shopper is coming from and shows him the price in stores in that area to guarantee that consumers see consistent pricing among its various channels. The retailer has 200 pricing regions, according to Hal Lawton, president, online for Home Depot, No. 39 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.

The retailer says it is focusing on spring because the season is the home improvement category’s busiest shopping season.

“Spring is our Christmas,” says Craig Menear, Home Depot’s executive vice president for merchandising. “As consumers continuously look for ways to affordably improve the appearance of their homes, we want to give them the best value possible to meet all of their indoor and outdoor needs.

David Fisch, director of business development at Facebook, will speak at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2011 in a session titled “What e-retailers need to know about Facebook."