????我和家得寶公司（Home Depot）的首席執行官弗蘭克?布萊克外出閑逛了一番，說是散步，其實更像是遠足，因為我們要穿越公司新建的一棟光彩奪目的直供中心，該中心位于喬治亞州麥克多諾，面積達110萬平方英尺（約合10.2萬平方米）。這座名為洛卡斯特?格羅夫中心（Locust Grove center）的建筑實質上是一個巨大無比的貨倉，但同時也是一座向一群特殊客戶表達敬意的教堂式建筑，這是一個被這家年營收高達790億美元的公司長期忽略的客戶群體，即那些喜歡在家中采購原材料，而不是長途跋涉至家得寶某家門店（該公司共有2,200家門店）去選購商品的DIY（自己動手）一族。

????閑逛途中，我們穿過一排排巨大的箱子，這些箱子堆得足有50英尺（約合15米）高，里面裝滿了重達340磅（約合154公斤）的洗面臺。隨后，我們看到小至門牌號碼大到坐便器等各式各樣的商品沿著巨大的傳送帶向前推送，這些商品被直接傳送至身著橘色工作服，正嚴陣以待的員工操控的卡車上。這些卡車基本上都不會開往家得寶門店，而是徑直駛往你我的家中。布萊克說:“我們希望以客戶期望的方式向他們提供貼心服務。”

????人們越來越喜歡在線購物，這早已不算是什么新聞了。施蒂費爾金融（Stifel Financial）預計，2014年零售商整體銷售增長中的一半份額將來自于網絡購物。雖然在布萊克擔任首席執行官的七年半時間里，出眾的業績表現使得家得寶公司幸運地躲開了一條新規則，即無數擁有過多店面的實體零售商希望售出過多商品，但在網絡購物發展的大潮中，他們一直被遠遠地拋在了后面。“這是大實話，”現年六十四歲的布萊克苦笑著承認。

????不過，就在不太長時間以前，就連家得寶能否實質性地進軍電子商務也是一個問題。

????2007年的1月3日，當布萊克接替鮑勃?納爾德里（Bob Nardelli），出任家得寶首席執行官的時候，這家公司正陷于危局，銷售額停滯不前，客戶服務糟糕透頂，供應鏈破敗不堪。公司的2,000多家門店幾乎處于彼此封閉的狀態，更不用說迎合網購顧客們的需求了。“要是放在七年之前，我們真的不可能蓋起這座中心，”他說。

????面對危機，布萊克決定停止開設門店——這在零售商們看來簡直就屬于離經叛道的行為——轉而將精力放在改善現有門店的購物體驗上。結果，他獲得了成功。從布萊克擔任首席執行官之時到2014年的6月底，公司股票的收益率為145%（包含股息再投資），而相比之下，標準普爾 500指數 (S&P 500.)的同期收益率僅為60%。按年率計算（僅考慮股價變化），家得寶公司也以9.7%的收益水平遠超標準普爾 500指數的4.3%。去年，家得寶公司同一門店的銷售增長創下了自上世紀九十年代末以來的最佳水平。“不再發展新門店讓我們如釋重負，節省了大量資本開支，”布萊克表示。

????在家得寶能夠將注意力放在互聯網上之前，公司的整體供應鏈必須得進行全面調整，負責供應鏈和產品開發的執行副總裁馬克?霍利菲爾德（Mark Holifield）在過去幾年中一直在領導這方面的工作。分析師表示，眼下家得寶正在迎頭追趕通行標準，如果你認真考慮該公司的網絡銷售潛力，以及截至目前的發展軌跡，你就會發現，一些曾經的拖累因素正在演變為一種資本。2013年，網絡銷售僅占公司總銷售額的3%。雖然這聽起來微不足道，但相比前一年已經是翻了一番。

????隨著喬治亞州直供中心的落成（家得寶今年還將在加州和俄亥俄州各建一座直供中心），家得寶公司不僅可以運送多達70萬個不同的庫存單元（即各式各樣的產品類型），還能夠在接受訂單的當天發送10萬件單品。相比之下，一般的門店只擁有3.5萬個庫存單元。這樣的轉變相當驚人，這使得家得寶在面對亞馬遜 (Amazon)這樣的競爭對手時更有底氣。如果客戶更喜歡在線下自己挑選商品，直供中心也可以向門店直接供貨。

????Frank Blake, the CEO of the Home Depot HD -0.04% , and I are out for a stroll—really, it’s more of a hike—across the company’s sparkling new, 1.1 million sq. ft. direct fulfillment center in McDonough, Ga. The Locust Grove center, as it’s known, is a humongous warehouse, yes, but it’s also a cathedral built in homage to a customer that the $79 billion-in-revenues company ignored for a very long time; the do-it-yourselfer who orders his or her stuff from home rather than trudging to one of Home Depot’s 2,200 stores.

????We pass row and rows of enormous boxes stacked 50 feet high, full of 340-lb. vanities. Then we watch items as small as house numbers and as large as toilets travel down massive conveyor belts, where they are trafficked directly into bays holding trucks by orange-apron wearing employees. Almost none of those trucks are bound for a Home Depot store. Instead, they’ll be heading directly to your house or mine. “The idea,” says Blake, “is that we want to be able to serve our customers how they want to be served.”

????The fact that customers increasingly like to buy online is not exactly news. Stifel Financial estimates that in 2014, fully half of retailers’ overall sales growth will come from online orders. And while Home Depot’s stellar performance under Blake’s seven-and-a-half-year tenure has made the company the happy exception to the new rule—that there are too many physical retailers taking up too much space in hopes of selling too much stuff—it has been for far too long behind the online curve. “That’s fair to say,” admits Blake, 64, with a wry smile.

????Whether Home Depot could even have pulled off a substantive e-commerce push much before now is another matter.

????When Blake succeeded Bob Nardelli as CEO on Jan. 3, 2007, the company was in crisis, with stagnant sales, poor customer service and an antiquated supply chain. Home Depot’s 2,000-plus stores could barely communicate with each other, let alone cater to online buyers. “Seven years ago we really could not have done this facility,” he says.

????Blake decided to stop opening stores—anathema for any retailer—and focus on simply making the store experience better. He did. The stock has returned 145% (with dividends reinvested) from when Blake assumed the CEO mantle to the end of June 2014, compared with a total return of 60% for the S&P 500. On an annualized basis (share-price change only) Home Depot stock clocks the S&P, 9.7% to 4.3%. And last year, Home Depot’s same store sales growth was the best it has been since the late 1990s. “Not having to build the stores has freed us up to make significant capital expenditures,” he says.

????Before Home Depot could focus on the Internet, the company’s entire supply chain needed to be overhauled, a process led over the past several years by Mark Holifield, EVP of supply chain and product development. But now the company is catching up to the prevailing standard, analysts say, and what was once a huge liability is beginning to become an asset if you consider its online potential—and the trajectory so far. In 2013, the company received just 3% of its sales from online purchases. Meager, yes—but that was double the share from the previous year.

????With the opening of the direct fulfillment center in Georgia (two more DFCs will open this year—one in California, another in Ohio), the company is able to ship up to 700,000 different SKUs (types and variations of products) online—and ship 100,000 of these items the same day an order is received. An average store, by comparison, has about 35,000 SKUs on hand. That’s a huge shift, and one that makes Home Depot much more competitive with the likes of Amazon AMZN 1.90% . The DFCs will also be used to ship items directly to stores, if customers prefer to pick up products themselves.