Flooring retailers who are partnered with Broadlume will be upgraded to a new digital platform, Broadlume X, which aims to improve the floor-buying experience for consumers and arm local flooring retailers with technology to help them sell more floors and make their businesses more profitable. 

Broadlume CEO Todd Saunders announced the improved platform during the group's March town hall meeting. 

“A lot has changed in the last four years," he said. "It’s never been a better time to be in the flooring industry, but at the same time, it’s never been a harder time to be in the flooring industry. It’s never been more clear what the industry needs. We need to make the floor-buying and selling experience easy. We need to make it more integrated, and we need to do all of this while elevating your brand. And we need to do all of this by elevating your brand in the local market by partnering with great suppliers. “

Broadlume, which acquired FloorForce in 2018, has been used by 3,000 retailers and 48 million consumers, Saunders said. He notes that Broadlume X aims to bring digital retailing to the flooring industry in a simplified, integrated approach and uses high-speed technology, improved functionality and fast reporting. 

The company said the new platform incorporates four new products aimed at simplifying and integrating the consumer buying experience. It allows the consumer to browse a product catalog on the retailer's website, order samples, and visualize products. Broadlume added more than 1,100 hard surface products and 5,200 carpet products to the catalogs from suppliers such as Chesapeake Flooring, Dixie Home, Fabrica, JJ Haines, Hallmark Floors, Masland and Mohawk. The Broadlume X platform also works in partnership with Mohawk and its Omnify digital platform. 

Retailers can use the platform to manage leads and sample orders from a central location, invite consumers to visualize their floors through a visualizer, and schedule a shop-at-home visit. All pricing of samples can be managed digitally through QR codes. The platform also offers retailers faster payments through online invoicing and bill pay. 

Saunders also announced three in-person events to help promote the new platform: a Business Management Workshop, May 23-25, in Seattle, Washington; Jason Goldberg's 48-hour Bootcamp, which will teach flooring retailers how to scale their businesses, June 21-22, in Indianapolis, Indiana; and FloorCon 2023, November 28-30, 2023, in Amelia Island, Florida. 

See recent coverage of Broadlume at TISE 2023 here.