The Home Depot finds a new home for 10 Crescent Lane

Just about a year after launching a pair of web sites and catalogs to carve out a space in the housewares and home furnishings market, The Home Depot Inc. is closing down the separate initiatives and consolidating the e-commerce portion into HomeDepot.com.

The retailer, No. 41 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, will cease publishing catalogs for 10 Crescent Lane, which carried decorative hardware and furniture and home accent and kitchen products, and Paces Trading Company, which carried lighting fixtures. The print content for both brands will now be incorporated into the Home Depot Direct catalog, the company says.

Home Depot is also closing down 10CrescentLane.com and PacesTradingCompany.com, but will carry the merchandise for both brands online at HomeDepot.com. Home Depot isn’t saying why it’s consolidating its latest direct marketing launches other than to say that both brands are likely to attract more visitors and shoppers on HomeDepot.com.

“As we monitored the progress of the direct business, it became apparent that HomeDepot.com and Home Depot Direct catalogs were drawing the most traffic,” says a company spokeswoman. “With over 2.5 billion page views annually, HomeDepot.com receives more traffic than any other online destination in the home and garden category.”

Despite the catalog and e-commerce consolidation within its direct marketing unit, revenue for the direct-to-consumer business is growing, Home Depot says. “Originally we projected to reach $1 billion in sales by 2010, but the direct business will likely reach that goal this year,” the spokeswoman says.

Retail analysts aren’t surprised that Home Depot is mixing up its direct business. “These two launches could be viewed as trial balloons to help Home Depot explore the direct market for softer goods,” says Jim Okamura, a senior research analyst with J.C. Williams Group. “It’s not surprising that they will try different things as they go along. What may be surprising some people internally at Home Depot is how effective the web is becoming as a sales channel.”