Walmart has announced a major partnership with Angi (previously Angie’s List) to expand its products into home services. Angi will allow Walmart to have service professionals available to customers in approximately 4,000 stores across the entire United States. Walmart customers will be able to shop online or in-store and add an Angi professional to complete any of the 150 common home projects like flooring, fence installation, painting, etc. They will also be on hand to do smaller jobs like mounting a big-screen TV or furniture assembly.
This move is the next level up from Walmart’s partnership with Handy back in 2018, to where they began to sell in-home installation and assembly services in over 2,000 stores and online. This move was in response to their rival Amazon launching their Home Services hub on its website in 2015 which proved to be very successful. After Walmart’s partnership with Handy, Angi Home services acquired the company to expand its reach. The co-founder of Handy, Oisin Hantahan, became CEO of the combined organization.
Today Walmart customers will see Angi, not Handy, as the home services partner attached to the retail giant’s products. Now Walmart customers will have access to Angi’s network of more than 250,000 professionals. Angi’s brand will be the exclusive brand shown online and in stores with eligible Walmart products. This move catapults Angi’s brand to higher heights attaching themselves to a vast customer base offering them opportunities to research, book, schedule, and pay home contractors and other service pros.
Before, Handy’s services basically focused on in-home installation and assembly offerings that included projects such as TV or furniture installation with the costs starting at $49 to $79. Angi’s services will be much more complex in offering services that include painting, flooring, and fencing. This appears that with this partnership, Walmart will now become direct competitors with the likes of mega home improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowes.
As Angi’s dedicated landing page goes live on Walmart.com in mid-February, customers will have the benefit of choosing Angi’s services online and in-store. After customers purchase their eligible product, Angi will then reach out to coordinate booking. Larger services will be accompanied by a dedicated project advisor that will provide customers with a custom quote, find a professional that handles the work, and make sure the project is successful.
This partnership comes at a time when more and more people are sprucing up their homes where they find themselves spending more time than usual due to the pandemic. Customers are looking for convenient, ease-minded home services that make the process of home-improvement seamless. With Angi bringing their touted experienced and highly rated pros, it seems like Walmart will bring a new standard to convenience in the retail service market.
