The Ace Hardware Fall Convention is wrapping up today, which brought together thousands of Ace retailers and vendors. It also marks one year since Ace rolled out their ELEVATE3 store format designed to create more immersive brand experiences.
Ace launched the format at the Convention last year. They brought it back this year and created a “Store-on-the-Floor” of the convention hall where they set it up to look just like an Ace store with ELEVATE3.
ELEVATE³ Ace is experiential retail wrapped in the servant-hearted humanity that’s made Ace famous. These stores let customers see, touch, and try the best of Ace, while staying true to our mission of serving neighbors. A year in, they’re driving strong growth for our retailers and making Ace an even more valuable part of the communities we serve.
John Venhuizen, President and CEO of Ace Hardware
The new store design started as a pilot, but now it’s in full rollout mode. There have been 130 stores converted so far and Ace is investing $1 billion in transforming new and existing stores.
The four key areas that are highlighted under the ELEVATE3 format are Paint, Power, Backyards & Barbeque, and Home Preservation. Stores that have the new format are seeing +12% in sales and +10% in gross profit dollars. Below are the performance highlights by category.
- Power: +25% sales (Craftsman, DeWalt, EGO, Milwaukee, Stihl, Toro)
- BBQ: +22% sales (Big Green Egg, Blackstone, Traeger, Weber)
- Backyard: +6% sales (Lodge, Solo Stove, Stanley, YETI)
- Paint: +6% sales (Benjamin Moore, Clark+Kensington, Magnolia Home)
- Home Preservation: +8% sales (Scotts)
The numbers support that the ELEVATE3 is beneficial for Backyard and BBQ, which isn’t surprising. It’s a superior format to stores that still just have an area with grills lined up in an orderly fashion, but without anything that highlights grill features and invites interaction.