Billy Bastek
Executive Vice President - Merchandising at Home Depot
Thank you, Ann. Good morning, everyone. I want to start by also thanking all of our associates and supplier partners for their ongoing commitment to serving our customers and communities.
As you heard from Ted, during the third quarter, our sales were in line with our expectations. However, we did have some unfavorable impacts from core commodity deflation and storm-related overlaps. We saw a continuation of a trend that we have been observing throughout the year with softness in certain big-ticket, discretionary type purchases. Instead of engaging in larger projects, customers continue to take on smaller projects.
Turning to our department comp performance for the third quarter. Our Building Materials department posted a positive comp and seven of our remaining 13 Merchandising departments posted comps above the Company average, including Plumbing, Appliances, Hardware, Outdoor Garden, Millwork, Tools and Paint. During the third quarter, our comp transactions decreased 2.7% and comp average ticket decreased 0.3%. Excluding deflation from core commodities, we experienced comp average ticket growth, primarily driven by demand for new and innovative products.
Deflation from core commodity categories negatively impacted our average ticket growth by approximately 60 basis points during the third quarter, driven by deflation in lumber and copper. During the third quarter, we continued to see a decline in lumber prices relative to a year ago. As an example, on average, framing lumber was approximately $420 per 1,000 board feet compared to approximately $545 in the third quarter of 2022, representing a decrease of over 20%.
Big-ticket comp transactions or those over $1,000 were down 5.2% compared to the third quarter of last year. We continue to see softer engagement in big-ticket, discretionary categories like flooring, countertops and cabinets. However, we saw big-ticket strength in Pro heavy categories like roofing, installation and portable power.
Turning to total Company online sales. Sales leveraging our digital platforms increased approximately 5% compared to the third quarter of last year. We continued to invest in the digital experience across our website and app, and released a variety of enhancements in the third quarter. These range from simple improvements to help customers track orders, to more complex things like updating our search and recommendation algorithms. For those customers that transacted with us online during the third quarter, nearly half of our online orders were fulfilled through our stores.
During the third quarter, we hosted our Annual Labor Day appliance and Halloween event, and we're pleased with the results. In appliances, we were encouraged with the customers' engagement during the event. And 2023 was another record sales year for our Halloween program, both in-store and online as our customers continue to add to their collection with our unique and exclusive product assortment.
As we turn our attention to the fourth quarter, we intend to continue this momentum with our annual holiday, Black Friday and gift center events. In our gift center, we continue to lean into brands that matter most for our customers with our assortment of Milwaukee, Ryobi, Makita, DeWalt, Ridgid, Husky and more. We will have something for everyone, whether it's our wide assortment of cordless Ryobi tools, DeWalt ATOMIC drill and impact kits or our new Milwaukee M18 FORGE batteries. These new M18 FORGE batteries will be a game-changer for our Pro customer, providing the most powerful, fastest charging and longest life of any battery on the Milwaukee M18 platform.
This quarter, I'm also excited to announce the addition of WAGO to our powerhouse assortment of Pro brands including Milwaukee, USG, custom-building products, Leviton and QEP to name a few. It is these strategic vendor relationships that make us the product authority in home improvement, and the addition of WAGO will help extend our position. WAGO is one of the top-requested, most innovative Pro brands in the wire connector segment that features a releasable level lock wire connector that speeds up installation and save space in tight applications.
We recently launched a number of SKUs in our stores, which are exclusive to The Home Depot from a national big-box retail channel. Our merchandising organization remains focused on being our customers advocate for value. This means, continuing to provide a broad assortment of best-in class products that are in-stock and available for our customers when they need it. We will also continue to lean into products that simplify the project, saving our customers time and money. That's why I'm so excited about the innovation we continue to bring to the market.
With that said, I'd like to turn the call over to Richard.