Dalton, Ga.—Shawfloors.com has been named one of BtoB Magazine’s “Ten Great Websites” of 2010 in a recent article. BtoB, a business-to-business 
marketing magazine, highlighted the features that make an effective website and provided a list of ten examples that exemplifies the characteristics every great site should have.
Recognition of Shawfloors.com from BtoB Magazine is significant for two reasons. First, the publication is not industry-specific, suggesting that the site has broad appeal outside of the flooring industry. Secondly, website usability and design experts nominated Shawfloors.com for the honor instead of Shaw submitting the site for consideration.
“With Shawfloors.com, we want to provide information, support and inspiration to help people make the best flooring decisions for their homes,” said Todd Callaway, interactive marketing manager for Shaw. “It’s encouraging to know that an objective source like BtoB Magazine and their accomplished panel of experts like the decisions we’re making. We’re honored for Shawfloors.com to be highlighted as a positive example of design and usability.”
Vidya L. Drego, senior analyst of customer experience at Forrester Research and one of the experts cited in the B2B Magazine article, wrote Shawfloors.com “has robust functionality and makes great use of multimedia and rich Web applications. You can take a photo of a floor and put the company’s flooring over it to see how it would look. That’s incredibly compelling. They solve a common problem that many companies have—actually being able to envision a product in use.”
Although Shawfloors.com is primarily a business-to-consumer site instead of a business-to-business site, the magazine liked the way the site balances consumers’ needs with the needs of business people like retailers, designers and building professionals.
“One of the best parts of this recognition is the opportunity it gives us to promote Shaw Web Studio, the web services that Shaw provides flooring retailers,” Callaway said. “Our plan all along when developing Shawfloors.com was to first build the tools for our own site and then leverage that investment to help retailers with their sites.” Most of the same features and benefits that lead BtoB Magazine to recognize Shawfloors.com are available for retailers’ own sites.
According to Misty Hodge, Shaw’s web services manager, retailers recognize the power of the web, but have difficulty with time, cost and technology expertise. Shaw Web Studio addresses these concerns with solutions for retailers who need a website or are looking to make their existing websites better. Solutions include customized web sites, product catalogs, select content and automated delivery of product images and data. All of the tools are easy-to-use, easy-to-maintain and affordable.
“Our goal is to provide retailers a way to capitalize on the success of Shawfloors.com with positive and informative web experiences for their respective consumers,” says Hodge. “Shaw Web Studio will dramatically help retailers create and maintain professional, affordable websites. Shaw is proud to support our retailers and take the industry to the next level in marketing technology.”
BtoB Magazine’s “Ten Great Websites 2010” article can be found at btobonline.com.
For more information on Shaw’s web services, visit shawwebstudio.com or call 888.742.9932.