EGO Moves from Home Depot to Lowes in Huge Retail Shakeup
Crazy news came out this week with a press release from The Home Depot. The company stated that its “outdoor power equipment is being reset and positioned by brand”. This new brand rollout is expected to hit all 1300 of its U.S. stores by the end of the year. That all seemed fine—until they dropped this little nugget:
As part of this merchandise reset, the company has made the decision to discontinue the EGO line of outdoor power equipment.
UPDATE: On Wednesday, July 22, 2020, a Lowe’s press release stated the following:
Beginning in December 2020, Lowe’s will be the exclusive nationwide home center to offer the top-rated line of EGO’s high-quality and innovative battery-powered mowers, blowers, string trimmers, hedge trimmers, edgers, chainsaws, and snowblowers.
Given this news, our initial speculation proved closer than we thought. Lowe’s has also indicated it will begin offering select SKIL battery-powered outdoor power equipment in late 2020. This includes push and self-propelled mowers, leaf blowers, string and hedge trimmers, among other products and accessories.
Editor’s Note: Check out our Lowes vs Home Depot article for our take on these two behemoth home improvement stores.
Why Discontinue a Top-Selling Brand?
Now, as far as we’re aware—EGO was Home Depot’s top-selling premium battery-powered product line in OPE by dollar share and number two only to Ryobi (a consumer brand with price points that appeal to the masses). Dropping it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. In our own testing, the brand often ranks top in comparative testing for mowers and blowers.
So we started speculating amongst ourselves…
Is EGO getting ready to take their brand national? No longer limiting themselves to being exclusive to The Home Depot would explain this sort of response. We’ve already seen the brand roll out to thousands of Ace Hardware stores and expand online with Amazon and Acme Tools. Perhaps this change was in the works?
Going national would also give the EGO Power+ brand more freedom to deploy additional products as it sees fit based on wider market demands.
Since Lowe’s is now indicating it will carry and sell EGO outdoor power equipment products, the Home Depot announcement has a bit more context. As EGO moves from Home Depot to Lowes, they also move to a slightly better position. Lowe’s is the #1 retailer for OPE based on market share. This will be an interesting lateral move for EGO.
What Do YOU Think?
What do you think? Is EGO going national? Have any other thoughts or speculation about what EGO might be up to following this move? Leave a comment below—we want to know what you think.
Editor’s Note: This article originally published on July 21, 2020, under the title “Is EGO Going National with its Outdoor Power Tools?”. We last updated it on July 22, 2020, after Lowe’s posted their press release on their corporate website. We’ll keep updating if and when new information becomes available.
Is this company still in business? I placed an $854 order for lawn lower in December 2021 with Lowes. Was told that the manufacturer has delays and I should contact them direct for a date. I called 855-346-5656, reached an arrogant agent who told me not his problem, I asked to speak with someone else and he hung up without saying a word! Poor, poor customer service.
Was excited to receive a Ego trimmer and blower 2 years ago, however after a year I had problems with low battery charge. After going back and forth with customer service, they sent me a new charger. This worked fine for awhile but now having same issues. Don’t know which is the problem but either way the solution is going to cost a lot. If this is a common occurrence then ego products are not worth the money you pay.
I have a pretty good suspicion why Home Depot dropped the Ego line. They got tired of having to tell customers that Ego has NO authorized repair centers in the U.S. and that NO independent mower repair shops will touch them. I paid $750 for their top of the line self-propelled mowers last June which I bought from Home Depot. When using it today, the blade motor stopped working. Called Ace dealers in the area, and they have no idea where to take it for repair. Called Lowes and couldn’t get through on customer service to even ask the question.… Read more »
I LOVE my Ego mower which I bought many years ago when they only offered one mower option. It is still on the original battery which has just now started not holding a charge. I have today purchased one of their self propelled mowers and am pretty excited about it. Lowes’ gain is Home Depot’s loss.
I’ve abused the hell out of an ego string trimmer for many years, I was impressed enough after the initial skepticism wore off that I bought a chainsaw and a 7.5 amp hour battery.
I am looking to purchase a cordless lawn mower next with EGO firmly in mind for that but I’m not entirely set on who it will be yet until I drop the coin on it.
For mowers, so far what I can see is that EGO is in 1st or 2nd tier for choice and probably Greenworks commercial mower.