What will it take to succeed as an independent flooring retailer in the future? John Gilbert, president of Carpet One, and Keith Spano, president of Flooring America, Flooring Canada, International Design Guild and The Floor Trader, offered Floor Trends some insight on the groups' Retail 2.0 strategy, which addresses consumers' desire to shop when, where, and how they want through digital technology, marketing, and the in-store experience.
Spano: The average cycle for flooring is seven to 10 years. We had done consumer research 20 years ago, and we have our agencies working on things a weekly, daily basis. But when we started talking about the consumer change and the fact that there's a lot of noise out there—there's a lot of competition for the consumer's dollar, and how she shops is really critical. We spent a lot of money and a lot of time find out exactly what the consumer was thinking.