Angi & Walmart’s Partnership: What it Means to HVAC Contractors

By: Will Housh

If you’re in the home services industry, you’re going to be very interested in this newest partnership. Walmart announced this week that it will be partnering with Angi (previously Angie’s List) to allow its customers to book appointments with service professionals to assist with 150 different home projects. This piloted roll-out will start in 4000 stores across all 50 states and will apply to all eligible in-store or online product purchases.

How will this impact the HVAC Industry?

If you’re an HVAC professional, you’re probably pretty familiar with the old “Angie’s List”. The company has been a big player in the HVAC space for years, allowing contractors to be part of a “preferred list” that customers use to research, book, schedule and pay for HVAC installation or maintenance services.

With its new Walmart partnership in place, Angi’s visibility is bound to skyrocket, and the contractors it works with will see the benefit, too. “Angi brings experience and highly-rated pros to our customers to help them get jobs done around the home,” added Darryl Spinks, senior director of Retail Services at Walmart. “We’re thrilled to bring the convenience and ease of Angi’s services to our customers.”

It’s unclear at this time whether HVAC services will be part of the initial roll-out to Walmart’s customers, but chances are pretty good they will.  Walmart sells furnace filters, heating and air purifying systems, and other HVAC-related equipment both online and in-store, and homeowners are showing high demand for such products, as they spend more time on home improvement projects. As Angie CEO, Oisin Hanrahan stated, “Since the start of the pandemic, the home is in focus and people across the U.S. are doing more home improvement, maintenance, and repair work and they are often turning to Walmart to find the tools and materials needed to start those projects.”

So what does this mean for you?

The merging of online shopping and the services industries isn’t coming – it’s here. The big online marketplaces and service provider platforms are consolidating customers and deciding which contractors get the jobs. This trend will only grow. While partnering with Angi and Walmart is one strategy for a select number of chosen contractors, you don’t have to wait to be “picked” as preferred partner.

You need to have a strategy to control your own destiny and continue to acquire and retain your own customers.  If you’re not taking advantage of selling to your customers online, we can help you. You can start selling filters, maintenance agreements, and fully-installed systems on your own website today. Request a demo to learn how.