Lowe’s upgrades offer for loyal customers amid sluggish sales

There’s just something about fixing, decorating, and improving your home, somewhere you have peace, spend quality time with your family, and relax. It’s a place that should reflect your character and lifestyle.

People felt that more than ever during the Covid pandemic lockdowns, when they were forced to spend all their time at home. Unfortunately, while many people love improving their houses, today’s economic climate environment is demanding other priorities to be fulfilled first. Food is one of them.

Commenting on Home Depot’s Q3 soft comparable sales growth, Zacks analysts suggest this is not a temporary dip, but rather a bigger shift among customers who are forced to focus only on essentials.

“With customers prioritizing essentials and pro backlogs beginning to ease, the quarter’s results point toward a market that may be settling into a lower-demand equilibrium,” they shared on Investing.com.

Home-improvement giants Lowe’s and Home Depot both saw foot traffic decline, especially in the first half of 2025. In Q1, year-over-year foot traffic dropped 3.8% for Home Depot and 3.5% for Lowe’s due to “sluggish housing market and other economic headwinds,” according to data from Placer.ai.

In its latest earnings report for the third quarter of 2025, Lowe’s reported only 0.4% year-over-year growth in its comparable sales. Moreover, foot traffic for the quarter decreased again, albeit by a very small percentage of 0.1%, according to data fromPlacer.ai.

To offset declining foot traffic and changes in customer behavior, Lowe’s recently made several moves, and the latest one targets its loyalty members.

Lowe’s expands its family offerings with MyLowe’s Rewards Kids Club 

Lowe’s is rolling out a new platform dubbed MyLowe’s Rewards Kids Club. The new family offering is an expansion of its two-decades old Kids Workshops, and it aims to help parents and kids build skills, confidence, and connections, according to the retailer’s press release.

With this upgrade, families are able to track a kid’s progress and manage workshop registration for multiple children under a single account.

Lowe’s research reveals:

• 56% of parents say their children log more screen time during the winter months.
• 87% said doing DIY projects together is one of the most rewarding ways they spend time as a family.

“By launching Kids Club, we’re giving the whole family more reasons to visit Lowe’s, build together and stay engaged over time — pairing hands-on experiences with the support of our red vest associates, who inspire creativity in a workshop or create a moment of joy when handing out lollipops while their parents shop the aisles of our stores,” stated Amanda Bailey, Lowe’s vice president for customer marketing and loyalty.

Loyalty programs have evolved from simple “thank you” gestures into essential growth engines. By boosting both per-trip spending and long-term retention, these initiatives deliver a massive bottom-line impact. In fact, research from iOrders reveals that loyalty members outspend non-members by 32% every year.

Key highlights of MyLowe’s Rewards Kids Club 

• New “Kids Club”: Parents can now add their children to their existing MyLowe’s Rewards account. This makes it easier to sign up for events and track everyone’s progress in one place.
• Free monthly workshops: Lowe’s will continue to host its free “DIY” workshops where kids can build projects (like birdhouses or gardens) to learn real-world skills.
• Rewards for kids: Children can earn digital badges for attending workshops. If they collect 12 physical badges, they can even get a free tool bag.
• In-store perks: To make shopping more fun, kids in the club get a free organic lollipop every time they visit the store with their parents.
• The goal: Lowe’s wants to give families a reason to visit the store more often, even when they don’t have a big home project, by turning the store into a fun “experiential” space for kids.
  Sources: MyLowe’s, Customer Experience Dive

Lowe’s loyalty program helps customers find discounts 

The Kids Workshop, which Digital Commerce SVP Joe Cano describes as a “playroom” within the store, is not the only type of event the retailer is relying on to establish relationships with its loyal customers. It also offered Ladies Night Out and Family Night Out events.

“Sometimes it’s not even around product but around saying, ‘Hey, we care about you as a customer and as a family,’” Cano told CX Dive. “We want you to feel very invited and to come in whenever you want to.”

Cano further explained that the loyalty program is designed to provide customers with the latest promotions based on projects that previously interested them.

“Prices are high, people are being a little more budget conscious, and so we want to make sure we’re offering the best product out there at the best price,” Cano said.

“And so that’s the thing that we’re really focused on: How do we actually ensure that our loyalty members can see the value in what we’re offering?”

Lowe’s new customer engagement strategy comes at a perfect time 

In a time of economic challenges, programs that help customers find discounts are important.

According to 2026 Retail Industry Global Outlook, four in 10 Americans showcase deal-driven or cost-conscious habits, and even higher-income consumers are redefining what “value” means.

Almost seven in 10 retailers confirm that behaviors such as trading down, shopping value channels, or forgoing convenience for savings represent a structural change, and not just a temporary response to inflation.

While Lowe’s provides a financial reprieve through discounts, its workshops also offer a mental reprieve from the digital world, and the timing is vital, as parents often struggle to limit their children’s screen time.

Time spent in front of a screen is rising not only among adults and teenagers, but also among younger kids. For example, YouTube use has jumped from 45% in 2020 to 62% in 2025 among parents of a child under 2 years old, according to data from Pew Research Center.

Additionally, a report from Children’s Hospital of Chicago revealed 54% of parents fear their child is addicted to screens.

Pediatrician Alyssa Cohen, a health service researcher at Lurie Children’s Hospital, highlighted the problems related to screen use, emphasizing that “quality time with family helps children thrive.”

“Screen use can become problematic if it replaces other important activities in the lives of kids and families, such as quality sleep, physical activity, emotional regulation, and social connection,” added Cohen.

As a parent, I am aware that one of the best ways to eliminate screen time is by offering a more interesting low-tech alternative. For some families, a hammer and birdhouse kit win over cartoons, movies, or video games every time.