Home Depot wants to extend its reach online

ATLANTA --Home Depot Inc. is on a mission to give its stores endless aisles.

The top home improvement retailer has a bold vision to expand its online sales, including plans to broadcast live product demonstrations and how-to infomercials on its website, automation of special-order sales, and new catalogs focused on categories such as outdoor living.

The plan includes company-branded kiosks where consumers can surf www.homedepot.com and buy goods at any time wherever they are, be that a Home Depot store, megamall, or maybe even an airport. Such self-service kiosks are already being tested in 50 Home Depot stores and at two Georgia malls.

''As shoppers become increasingly time-starved, they are looking to shop any time, anywhere," said Harvey Seegers, president of Home Depot Direct, the 1,000-employee division that handles online and catalog sales.

''We're going to be investigating different channels of shopping in the upcoming years, and the ones that get approved will become permanent," Seegers said in an interview.

Online retailing is an explosive growth business. For example, Internet research firm Nielsen/NetRatings tracked 92.3 million online purchases in December 2005, up from 61.9 million a year earlier.

''Retailers are able to extend their business online and capture significant sales," said Heather Dougherty, senior retail analyst at Neilsen/NetRatings.

Home Depot did not give figures, but said its online sales grew 100 percent in the past year. Over the next few years, the retailer sees potential for online and catalog sales to reach $1 billion, an e-commerce sales level already reached by discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Home and garden is among the product categories seeing the most growth in online sales. ''People are becoming comfortable buying things like appliances online now," Dougherty said.

For Home Depot, online expansion is crucial to growth as new-store openings slow and smaller rival Lowe's Cos. moves aggressively into big US cities.