(Bloomberg) -- Lowe’s Cos. tried last year to become a gift destination. The lessons learned from that first foray are now helping it navigate supply-chain snarls heading into another holiday season.

The home-improvement retailer has been stocking up on Christmas-worthy merchandise like kid’s tool kits, dog beds and artificial trees. After brisk sales a year ago of everything from electric scooters to air fryers, Lowe’s has been ordering from suppliers earlier than usual to avoid the stock shortages that are expected to plague retailers in the coming months.

“Before the supply chain challenges really came to a head, we were already in motion in getting those things here earlier because it was trends that we saw a year ago that did very well,” Bill Boltz, executive vice president of merchandising, said in an interview.

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