Standing in front of a wall of screens glowing with real-time performance metrics, Neelima Sharma, SVP Omnichannel and Ecommerce Technology, calls the room to attention.
“Lowe’s is officially the number one app in retail!”
Cheers and claps erupt across the room as more than 50 working groups of Lowe’s brightest technologists celebrate this incredible feat.
This is Mission Control. Lowe’s global command center and the heartbeat of Lowe’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday operation.
For seven straight days, starting the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, hundreds of tech associates gather at Lowe’s Tech Hub in Charlotte, North Carolina and at the Lowe’s India offices in Bangalore. These subject matter experts operate behind the scenes monitoring, analyzing, and responding to systems in real time. It’s where innovation, operational discipline, and customer obsession unite to deliver a reliable, frictionless shopping experience customers truly value.
The program mobilizes teams across every major customer-facing and critical technology; from .com and Store systems to AI, Data Centers, and our global network infrastructure.
Mission Control itself is a hive of energy. Associates work in shifts around the clock. Status calls run every two hours. Vendor partners are on-site to offer support. There’s even a buffet to keep energy high and focus on point, complete with a rotating menu of cuisine that has become a team tradition in its own right.
What unfolds inside Mission Control is the final phase of an exhaustive, months-long effort.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are more than major shopping days - they are the Super Bowl of retail. For Lowe’s Digital Operations, this period represents the most important annual test of performance, reliability, and customer experience.
Getting to gameday requires complex coordination between thousands of people across product, pricing, supply chain, inventory, and external partners starting over the summer.
Every detail is accounted for. Teams build fallback systems for every new site feature and conduct load testing that anticipates twice the expected traffic.
But what stands out most isn’t the food or the tech. It’s the heart.
Behind every system order and fast checkout are teams with a genuine desire to deliver the same experience we expect as consumers ourselves because we too shop Lowe’s.
It’s that level of care, preparation and ownership that ensures most customers never think twice about what powers their holiday experience. And that’s exactly the point.
