Independent hardware store: attracting contractors in your region

What brings a contractor back to your store

A contractor does not shop like a homeowner. Their time is worth more than the price difference on a box of screws, and their jobsite does not wait. What they value in an independent hardware store comes down to four concrete things.

• Counter advice: someone who knows the product, the alternatives and the installation pitfalls saves a second trip. "Plumbing advisor at the counter" says more than "qualified staff".
• Emergency stock: fittings, fasteners, blades, sealants, the parts people forget or that break mid-job. The contractor needs to know you have them before making the trip.
• The commercial account: consolidated invoices, written payment terms, a clear way to open an account.
• Speed: orders prepared in advance, no wait at the counter early in the morning, a phone call that gets an answer.

Your online local listing: the essentials

When a contractor looks for a hardware store near a jobsite, an online local listing such as Google Business Profile is one of the places they can find you. Google's official help gives simple rules that make a listing reliable:

1. Use your store's real name, as it appears on your sign. Google requires the name to reflect the real name and rejects unnecessary additions.
2. Give a precise address and a local phone number that reaches your store, rather than a generic central line where that can be avoided.
3. Enter your regular opening hours to the public, the ones your customers actually experience.
4. Add special hours for statutory holidays, even if they look like your usual hours: Google suggests confirming the hours for each official holiday.
5. If you offer delivery or pickup at different hours, create separate hours for that service. In general, they should fall within your main hours.
6. Choose as few categories as possible to describe your main business.

Then keep the same information on your website, in directories and on your invoices. When two sources contradict each other, the contractor has no reason to take a chance: they call someone else.

Opening hours: a lever with contractors

Contractors start early. Quebec's Act respecting hours and days of admission to commercial establishments applies to establishments where products are offered for retail sale to the public. Subject to exceptions, it provides for admission of the public from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.

On February 23, 2026, the Quebec government announced a pilot project: non-food businesses, hardware stores included, may open to the public from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Sunday, statutory holidays excluded, on a voluntary basis. It came into force on March 11, 2026 for a one-year period. The Act specifies that a pilot project lasts at most one year and that the minister may extend it by at most one year.

If you decide to open earlier, say so everywhere: local listing (regular hours or special hours), store door, phone message, directory listing. A counter that opens early is useless if nobody knows it exists.

Commercial accounts and emergency stock: how to advertise them

Details on delivery, invoices and returns are in our article on what a supplier should display.

A quote relies on material prices. A contractor who prepares it in software such as SubmitX (AI prepares a draft, and the contractor approves it before it is sent) needs a written, dated price. Answering quickly, in writing, with a validity date, puts you among the suppliers they call back.

Directories, the business register and industry networks

A general directory puts you in competition with every business in town. An industry directory groups construction companies together: the contractor searching there already knows what they want. Our article on building materials suppliers shows how to describe your territory and your trades.

• The Quebec enterprise register: searching it is free. Look up your own entry: it shows the NEQ (Quebec enterprise number), registration status, names used and addresses. An outdated trade name or address there makes a poor impression.
• Member directories: if your chamber of commerce or regional association publishes one, check that your listing in it is accurate.
• Your website: a "Contractors" or "Commercial accounts" page with your hours, your territory and a direct contact.
• Construction networks: see the next section.

Where SubmitX Network fits

SubmitX Network is a construction network in Quebec: a directory of profiles searchable by region, by trade and by radius. The "supplier" profile type is designed for materials and hardware. It lets you describe what you sell, where you serve and how: at the counter, by delivery or both. No SubmitX software account is required.

The network is closed for now: Quebec's 17 administrative regions are on a waitlist, and a region opens once there are enough profiles for a first search to return results. You can sign up and prepare your listing right now. Sign-up is free for now, and SubmitX does not sell contact details or customer leads. Join the supplier waitlist.