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Success Story
How Lowe’s redefined the paint-buying journey with Zebra’s connected technology
Constantly seeking ways to simplify daily operations and elevate customer experience, Lowe’s turned its attention to one of the most hands-on areas of the store: the paint desk.
Zebra Success Story: Lowe's
Overview: Retail Challenge
For customers, ordering paint was a manual process that relied heavily on handwritten notes and personal interpretation. The goal was clear: a modern, efficient, and intuitive process that meets the unique needs of both customers and associates.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Reduced wait times and streamlined order fulfillment through self-service paint kiosks
- Lower product waste thanks to order validation and digital workflow integration
- Improved associate efficiency, freeing staff from desk duty and reducing training time
- Enhanced customer experience with real-time order visibility
- Long-lasting, data-rich labels produced by Zebra ZD411 printers
Customer
Lowe's
Mooresville, North Carolina/USA
Industry
Retail
Solutions
About Lowe's
When people want to improve their homes – whether painting a room, building a deck, or sourcing materials for a professional job – they go to Lowe’s. As one of the world’s largest home improvement retailers, Lowe’s operates over 1,700 stores across the United States, serving approximately 16 million customer transactions each week and employing approximately 300,000 associates. The company’s success rests on its mission statement: to solve problems and fulfill dreams for the home. To help achieve this, Lowe’s is focused on empowering associates with the right tools to deliver exceptional service to its customers.
Running a store that serves homeowners, professional contractors, and service providers takes precision, coordination, and relentless focus on efficiency. Having already teamed with Zebra Technologies in previous initiatives, Lowe’s knew it could rely on a proven collaborator to help its teams reduce time spent on routine tasks and keep their attention on customers.
The Challenge
Constantly seeking ways to simplify daily operations and elevate customer experience, Lowe’s turned its attention to one of the most hands-on areas of the store: the paint desk. For customers, ordering paint was a manual process that relied heavily on handwritten notes and personal interpretation.
“Customers would approach the desk, call out their order, and an associate would try to fulfill it on the spot,” recalls Will Saake, Sr. Director, Technology—Associate Productivity, Innovation & Mobility at Lowe’s. Associates were tasked with assisting customers at the counter while simultaneously monitoring online orders, yet the absence of real-time alerts meant new requests could easily go unnoticed.
With multiple touchpoints and no integrated system, coordination between the paint desk and fulfillment team required constant communication and manual updates, adding extra steps and slowing the overall workflow.
These factors also increased the risk of simple errors: a single misread note or misunderstood color code could result in an incorrect paint color, wasted paint, and lost time. By reimagining the paint journey from end to end, Lowe’s set out to build a next-gen paint experience.
We focus on the customer by focusing on the associate, giving them the tools they need to minimize time spent on repetitive tasks so they can spend more time with the customer. Zebra’s technology helps us do exactly that.
The Solution
The goal was clear: a modern, efficient, and intuitive process that meets the unique needs of both customers and associates. That required more than an off-the-shelf solution—it demanded a collaborator capable of fine-tuning every detail to match Lowe’s environment.
Zebra Technologies provided the expertise required. “Zebra allows and opens up a lot of fine-grain control for us, giving us the ability to customize the experience to create effectiveness in our goals with our associates,” explains Saake.
Working together, the teams designed a connected, easy-to-manage system built on Zebra KC50 kiosks, TC53 mobile computers, DS8108 Scanners, and ZD411 desktop printers. “We knew we were going to need something bright, something that looked cool – a kiosk people would want to walk up to, engage with, and feel comfortable using,” says Saake. Zebra quickly built and refined prototypes that Lowe’s could test in-store and collect real-world feedback to refine the design before expanding to more of its stores.
Leveraging rapid 3D-printing capabilities, Zebra also developed modular stands with adjustable height and ergonomic features, ensuring both associates and customers could comfortably see and speak to each other.
Now, when a customer approaches the paint desk, they’re greeted by an interactive touchscreen that walks them through a short series of questions to select the right paint. Behind the counter, a second, associate-facing KC50 receives the order instantly, integrated directly with the tinter and displaying all the details needed to prepare the mix accurately and efficiently.
Once the order is ready, the system automatically sends a text message to the customer. Instead of waiting at the desk to take new requests, associates receive updates directly on their TC53 handheld devices. This helps them manage other responsibilities around the department, giving them confidence that they’ll be alerted when new paint orders arrive. The result is a smoother, more relaxed experience for everyone: customers can use the waiting time to browse other aisles or pick up supplies for their next project, while associates work efficiently and stay connected to the paint desk in real time.
"It really simplifies the experience for both our customers and our associates,” explains Saake. “We focus on the customer by focusing on the associate, giving them the tools they need to minimize time spent on repetitive tasks so they can spend more time with the customer. Zebra’s technology helps us do exactly that.”
What emerged was more than an equipment upgrade. "The transformation changed how we sell and make paint," says Saake.
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Across stores, the next-gen paint experience powered by Zebra delivered measurable improvements in both customer satisfaction and business performance. The technology also reduced errors and cut training time significantly. The order validation built into the kiosk meant less wasted paint and a cleaner data trail across systems.
With the compact ZD411 desktop printers, the Lowe's team ensured a rounded experience. “Paint cans often end up in garages or attics for years,” explains Saake. “When customers come back to match that color, they need to be able to read the label. Zebra helped us design a printer that fits in the space we have, produces bright, easy-to-read labels, and gives customers access to their paint information for decades.”
For Lowe’s, the success of the paint transformation is only the beginning. The full next-gen paint experience is now live in more than 100 stores, with approval to expand the associate-facing kiosk and tinter integration across the entire network.
The relationship with Zebra has proven essential to that momentum. “The value goes beyond the hardware,” Saake reflects. “Zebra is a collaborator that’s willing to move with speed and urgency, just as Lowe’s wants to move.”
Looking ahead, Lowe's plans to extend its collaboration with Zebra into new departments, continuing to merge human expertise with intuitive, purpose-built tools. Together, the two companies are proving that even in something as straightforward as mixing paint, innovation can reshape not just a process but an entire customer experience.
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