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We estimate that our fiscal 2021 effective tax rate will be similar to what we reported in fiscal 2020. As we begin 2021, we believe that we've positioned ourselves to meet the needs of our customers in any environment. The investments we've made in our business have enabled flexibility in our operating model, as well as our financial model. As we look forward, we'll continue to invest to strengthen this position and extend our scale and low-cost position to drive growth faster than the market, regardless of what the environment may look like. Key components of our One Home Depot strategy such as opening of various supply chain facilities, technology investments, and enhancements to the digital experience remain on track. We have also restarted many of the in-store investments that were paused at the outset of the pandemic.
We have been able to leverage investments we have made in the scale and flexibility of our supply chain network to relieve some of the pressure. Our interconnected retail strategy and underlying technology infrastructures have supported record web traffic on a consistent basis for the past several months. Sales leveraging our digital platforms increased approximately 100% in the quarter and more than 60% of the time, our customers opted to pick up their order at a store. The rate at which customers are authenticating with us has also accelerated which provides us with a unique opportunity to know our customers even better. The Atlanta, GA-based home improvement retailer continues to be a money-making machine as the stock is up more than 30% year-to-date despite a global recession. This time is different as housing strength is boosting sales, while shelter in place orders caused customers to invest more in their own homes.
Home Depot (HD) Q2 2020 Earnings Call Transcript
After completing a project, we see many of our DIY customers take on additional, and oftentimes more complex projects with a renewed sense of confidence. During the fourth quarter, our customers exhibited a lot of trends similar to what we saw throughout 2020. For instance, we saw continued strength in outdoor living categories like patio furniture, grills, and outdoor power equipment as customers tried to extend the outdoor living season. We also saw strong performance from popular interior project categories like vanities, faucets, moldings, and interior lighting. However, given the degree of uncertainty in our external environment, we cannot extrapolate current observations to predict future performance.
And when you kill all of your spring promotions and major events that historically drive big amounts of traffic to the stores, that's going to have an impact. But it's the project nature of the business, for both the Pro and the DIY customer that's driving -- helping to drive the growth in the e-com world. When you think about doing a project, customers blending the physical and digital worlds, we have an expanded assortment in the digital world.
BENEFITS
But could you provide some color on that? Again, we saw in all of our top 40 markets, double-digit growth. And it's one of the most narrow performances we've seen by region, by market in quite some time. And once you accomplish that first, more modest task, you gain confidence and you take on the next task and the next task and they become bigger. And then you need more sophisticated and broader breadth of tools to continue the more ambitious projects you're taking on. So this is what we saw with the baby boomer and the growth and the establishment of this industry.
All the investments across the business make us more flexible as we continue to navigate this fluid and dynamic situation. As we look to the back half of the year, we will be working with our supplier partners as well as our cross-functional teams to satisfy our customers' evolving home improvement needs. For the year, our sales totaled a record $132.1 billion with sales growth of $21.9 billion versus fiscal 2019. For the year, total company comp sales increased 19.7%, and U.S. comp sales increased 20.6%.
Time Changes in Frankfurt Over the Years
As a result, we are focused on operating with discipline and flexibility in order to grow market share regardless of what demand patterns emerge. And despite the significant uncertainty in the current environment, we do believe in the resilience of home improvement demand over the long term. The home typically represents our customers' largest asset. In the second quarter, our effective tax rate was 24.4% compared to 24.6% in the second quarter of fiscal 2019.
And thanks to all of you for joining our call this morning. We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy, and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all of those that have been directly impacted by COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact have forced us to change the way we live, work and interact with each other. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors identified in the release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Our interconnected retail strategy and underlying technology infrastructure have continued to support record-level web traffic on a consistent basis throughout the year. And finally, during the second quarter, we showed strong expense control in all areas of the business and drove approximately 145 basis points of expense leverage. Our operating margin for the second quarter was approximately 15.9%, an increase of approximately 10 basis points from last year. Interest and other expense for the second quarter grew by $54 million to $337 million due primarily to higher long-term debt levels than one year ago. Sales to our Pro customers accelerated meaningfully compared to the first quarter and grew double digits compared to the second quarter of last year. Looking deeper into our Pro sales, we saw notable strength with our smaller Pro customer.
Our diluted earnings per share for the second quarter were $4.02, an increase of 26.8% compared to the second quarter of 2019. At the end of the quarter, merchandise inventories declined $1.2 billion to $13.5 billion driven by the significant and steady demand we saw during the quarter. Inventory turns were 6.1 times, up from 5.1 times last year. Let me give you an example to help illustrate our enhanced capabilities and options for customers.
And I'll let Ted share some color on how we're seeing the engagement in indoor. We might defer several hundred million, probably less than $0.5 billion that could be pushed into next year. Depending on the size of that deferral, 2021 capex may look more similar to 2020 levels. And from an expense perspective, the deferral is lower than the capital deferral. It actually was not supply chain or demand.
I didn't hear anything necessarily that -- that would improve year over year. So, can we infer from that -- that you expect gross margins to be down next year? And then, I wanted to ask you about inventory. And then my follow-up maybe for Craig and for you, Richard.
Our final question will come from the line of Karen Short with Barclays. On -- on general, inflation, again today, we're not providing guidance. And so, the case that we laid out to you today is simply a mathematical extrapolation.Ted, maybe you'll talk about from the vendor side. Our next question comes from the line of Zach Fadem with Wells Fargo.
Richard, I want -- I want to focus on the outlook for strategic spending. So, maybe both my questions will really be focused here. You mentioned the $3 million and $25 million of quarterly spend and I think that's been consistent for the past two quarters. And with respect to the COVID environment, we've really found no relationship between COVID case counts and sales performance.
So again, when you look at those two months and you make those adjustments, they were almost identical from a comp perspective and that's carried on to the first two weeks of the third quarter. But we should see some moderation, but the unit demand, even with these higher prices, has remained double digit and incredibly strong. So we see strength into Q3, certainly right now. But where it shakes out ultimately in margin, not certain. The second quarter was a blowout quarter.
Our customers tell us that they plan to continue to invest in a wide variety of projects to maintain and enhance their homes. All of our top 40 markets posted double-digit comps, while Canada posted comps above the company average and Mexico posted double-digit comps in local currency. As Ted will detail, big-ticket comp transactions were up double digits in the quarter and we saw strong double-digit growth from both the Pro and DIY customers. We had a record holiday season as our modified approach to Black Friday and gift center events clearly resonated with our customers.
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