When is the status quo not enough? When you are a flooring retailer that’s coming off a sluggish year and can’t afford to be reactive to market conditions. At times like these, dealers must actively improve and innovate, lest they be overtaken by competitors looking to take market share.
Of course, flooring retailers are an aggressive lot, and few are willing to remain in their comfort zones during challenging times. Several retailers shared their winning strategies for the new year.
“We are about to undertake an extensive remodel in the store. We recently became a CCA KIBA member, so we are updating both the flooring and kitchen/bath areas. We will be purging the flooring displays that have not been selling, and we are bringing new cabinet lines into our K&B area. We will also bring in some K&B products that we never offered before, such as plumbing fixtures and lighting. We will be ready for a strong 2025.”
—Paul Deschenes, Schneider’s Flooring America, Vernon, Conn.
“Our strategy moving forward will be to ramp up our advertising to drive retail [traffic] and leverage our partnerships to take advantage of technology and digital marketing to reach customers who may have been holding off. During this slow time, we’ve also had the opportunity to reevaluate some of our processes—and as things start to break loose, we will begin an outreach program to builders and contractors to increase our portfolio of builder and contractor clients.”
—Aaron Johnson, Johnson & Sons Flooring, Knoxville, Tenn.
“We just purchased the building right next to us and will be expanding our showroom. We are growing and continually looking for good people either in the store or installers. We are excited and looking forward to a great year in 2025.”
—Jeremy Wirges, 3 Kings Carpet, Fort Wayne, Ind.
“We are in the midst of construction for our KIBA Studio inside Independent Carpet One. We have dedicated over 1,400 square feet of our showroom to present kitchen and baths. We will sell cabinetry, plumbing, hardware, lighting, countertops and more, and will be the consumer’s one-stop shop for creating new spaces within her home or office.”
—Cathy Buchanan, Independent Carpet One Floor & Home, Westland, Mich.
“The next big thing is to continue executing on the plan we put in place years ago. We’re going to continue driving growth through an improved sales process, adoption of new technology and overall execution. We’ve been fortunate to drive meaningful growth over the past two years and look forward to continuing that trend.”
—Adam Joss, The Vertical Connection Carpet One, Columbia, Md.
“We just came off a major store remodel in 2024, and with the addition of our Perfect Home collection we feel we are poised to have a great year. The other “next” thing for us is growth in our custom shower division. While we do a lot of custom tile showers we want to grow our shower division with the addition of composite wall panels. We believe this will keep us competitive and give our customers all options available.”
—Bob Pireu, Bob & Pete’s Floors, Canton, Ohio
“We spent the last half of 2024 significantly expanding our sales force in preparation for 2025’s ‘Next Big Thing’—re-doubling our already forward-moving efforts in Shop-at-Home. We’ll more than double our Shop-at-Home digital marketing efforts, pushing our overall marketing budget beyond 6% of retail gross—all in pursuit of more of the active growth we experienced in 2024.”
—Kevin Frazier, Frazier Carpet One Floor & Home, Knoxville, Tenn.
“In 2025 we are going to focus on the customer. We are going to implement ways to better communicate with the customer before, during and after install. We are going to create communication touch points throughout the sales process and install process. We believe by increasing communication we will have happier customers and that will increase sales.”
