Since the end of the “distribution revolution” in commercial carpet from the mid-1990’s, several manufacturers have slowly attempted to develop internal project management and estimating teams to simulate the services offered by a professional flooring contractor. This is rarely seen with manufacturers that offer differentiated products or compete on innovation. This simulated service strategy is most often seen with manufacturers that have allowed their business to devolve to price due to overcapacity, lack of innovation, or protect vulnerable commission sales associates. Lack of product differentiation forces end user decision making to price. Large end users can be very aggressive in asserting their will in the buying process and unsophisticated companies fold up under the pressure.
Manufacturers have attempted to mitigate the margin erosion associated with lack of innovation by slowly abandoning value enhancers such as wholesale distributors. This was an attempt to pick up margin, but it has also failed over time. Manufacturers have also attempted to fill the void left by lack of sales effort on their products by taking on more services. Purchasing services from a company so focused on manufacturing to earn revenue dramatically increases the internal risk an end user takes on for interior construction. By eliminating the general contractor as well as independent experts, such as interior designers and the professional flooring contractor, the end user is removing their protective levels of assurance.