By Sarah Nassauer and Paul Ziobro

Lowe's Cos. is cutting thousands of workers and shuffling the jobs of thousands more, according to people familiar with the matter, as the home-improvement retailer tries to adapt to shifting shopping habits.

The company plans to eliminate less than 1% of its workforce, or fewer than 3,000 jobs, said a person familiar with the matter. But it also will shift many workers' "back-of-house responsibilities and activities to customer-facing ones," the person familiar said, aiming to redeploy them to help answer shoppers' questions about products or home-improvement projects.

The move comes after the Mooresville, N.C.-based hardware retailer in November cut its profit outlook for the year, citing weaker-than-expected store traffic.

"We've got to make sure that as the consumer is changing the ways they engage with us, we continue to be nimble," said Lowe's Chief Executive Robert Niblock in an interview at the time. Lowe's employs around 285,000 people.

CNBC reported earlier about Lowe's layoff plans.

Several big retailers are cutting jobs as they struggle to cut costs while investing in their e-commerce operations and store improvements in efforts to better compete with Amazon.com Inc. and other online rivals.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to cut nearly 1,000 corporate jobs before the end of the month, after it cut around 7,000 back-of-house jobs at its stores late last year. Last week, Macy's said it would eliminate more than 10,000 jobs and close dozens of stores.

In November, Lowe's cut its full-year earnings-per-share guidance to $3.52 from $4.06, the second such decrease in as many quarters. Same-store sales expectations were also lowered to between 3% and 4%, down from 4% previously.

Lowe's has lagged behind its Atlanta-based rival Home Depot Inc. in recent years, a deficit that analysts largely attribute to Home Depot's better locations. Home Depot also does more business with home builders and contractors, which has given its sales a bigger lift as homeowners take on larger remodeling projects.

While the housing market remains strong, Lowe's is still trying to navigate a retail market where consumers increasingly turn to the internet rather than physical stores to buy materials and research projects. It is using video cameras and other technology to help it analyze store traffic and adjust its staffing to match customer needs.

Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com and Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 12, 2017 17:05 ET (22:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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