(Editor’s note: Following is the third installment of a 10-part series featuring retailers who signed on to become Mohawk Edge Store Members. This segment focuses on the myriad benefits that Edge membership provides. This installment follows Barefoot Flooring.)
Lake St. Louis, Mo.—Situated in a strip mall about 40 miles west of St. Louis lies Barefoot Flooring, a profitable floor covering dealer that has capitalized on the migration from St. Louis proper to St. Charles County. Specifically, Barefoot Flooring is located in Lake St. Louis, an upper-middle class suburb that has seen population growth from 4,000 to 90,000 over the past 18 years, which provides a healthy backdrop for success.
But it’s not just Lake St. Louis from which Barefoot draws. “We basically pull from southern Illinois almost as far as Lake of the Ozarks and then pretty much everything in between,” said owner John Modica, who has been in flooring retail for 30 years. “They may live 15 or 25 miles away, but they have no problem coming here if they think they’re getting good value.”
Barefoot Flooring’s volume today is somewhere between $5 million and $10 million. “I’m happy to say I have had growth year to year since day one,” Modica said. He’s owned the company for nearly two decades. “My bandwidth is the mid to upper-end customer who wants to spend some money and get a good product at a good value. We also do really well with the consumer who is building a home.” As such, Barefoot’s average ticket is around $9,000.
Modica attributes much of his success to his partnership with Mohawk, which dates back almost to the day he became sole owner in 2010. “I was a Color Center Elite retailer,” he recalled. “What attracted me back in the day was protection on proprietary products. There would be a two-month sale on a particular proprietary product, and we would take advantage of that tremendously.”
As Mohawk phased out the Color Center program and transitioned to Edge, Barefoot Flooring continued to thrive as a Premier dealer, estimating about 45% of his business today is with Mohawk.
Modica cites the advertising help as one critical advantage. “Edge Premier dealers are based on volume, so the more you do with Mohawk, the better return on investment you’re going to get as far as advertising goes,” he explained. “This year we’ve really ramped it up with Roomvo, one of Mohawk’s digital partners, just to make sure we’re taking advantage of working with Mohawk.” Modica also leans on Roomvo to ensure he is spending his advertising dollars wisely.
Another aspect of the Edge program that Modica finds beneficial is his preferential ranking on Mohawk’s dealer locator. “As a Premier dealer, when someone is searching on the Mohawk website, we are going to be toward the top,” he noted. “And the fact that Barefoot Flooring is listed as an Edge Premier dealer says to customers that we’re more aligned than some other companies.”
Modica said that when Edge dealers receive new products first, it gives them a leg up on the competition. “If I’m at convention, or they know us as an Edge dealer, we’re going to get that RevWood Premier rack ahead of everyone else. Those little time spans help.”
Natural progression to Edge store
Barefoot Flooring was one of the early adopters of the Edge Stores program, signing up at Edge Summit this past December. “I need to take advantage of what Edge offers—I like the rebates; I really like how they’ve partnered with the best vendors in the industry. There are distinct advantages of the Edge program, especially as you start doing more and more volume. And again, they’re helping me so I don’t have to spend time on the internet and advertising side. So it’s nice to have them as a partner to handle it. They know what they’re doing.”
Modica discussed some of the other benefits of being an Edge store:
- Priority placement on the Mohawk dealer locator: Edge Store members always receive the top spot on the dealer locator.
- Edge Experience Academy RSA training: “We have two people in that today. One is one of our best retail salesmen who’s been doing this for 30 years, and then I’ve got somebody who’s been in it for six or seven months. This RSA training is different than Mohawk University, where you learned about the technical stuff. This sales training is more of caring for the customer, finding their needs.”
- Showroom lighting solution: “So basically you put product underneath a light and it’s going to show you how that product will look in different types of lighting environments. Do you want daylight? Do you want warm light? Do you want neutral light? Lighting changes the color of the floor.”
- Dedicated marketing concierge: “I call my concierge whenever I have an issue. It’s nice to have one designated person. One point of contact. She’ll have the answer for me. And she also knows our business a little bit better than if you just got a random. She’s going to say, ‘John, the last time you did this, maybe you want to try this.”
- Increased co-op: That’s probably one of their biggest advantages because it allows companies like us to try different things, like TV advertising. It’s not as big a risk because I can co-op some of it.”
- Showroom consultants: “Right now it’s not a priority for us, but I will look into that probably within the next 12 to 14 months when I make the decision to either stay here or build a new store. If we’re going to stay here, then I will need people to lay out the showroom the way we want.”
- The use of co-op on a visualizer kiosk: “It is just one more thing to help the consumer. There are times when I don’t have a particular sample in the store. I can go over to that kiosk and [show what something will look like in her home]. It also has the comparison feature. Do you want to go light or do you want to go dark? Then they can see it in their own home and make those determinations. And the fact it’s co-opable is very nice.”
- Priority displays and POP kits: “I’m going to get those updates and new displays before everybody else. And if you’re going to get something first, you can advertise that particular product before the competition.”
