The Shaw Flooring Network (SFN) transformed the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida, into a hub of multigenerational innovation this January, as over 1,000 retailers gathered to explore the future of flooring. Under the theme "Believe," the convention broke new ground by turning product demonstrations into family experiences, proving that the next generation of flooring professionals is already walking the show floor. The event showcased Shaw's ambitious strategy to revitalize the industry while strengthening its dealer partnerships.

Ben Liebert, executive vice president of residential business, outlined three major challenges facing the flooring industry and presented a five-pillar strategy to address them.

According to Liebert, the flooring industry is losing market share to other interior finishing products, despite flooring being "foundational in our home." He noted that the average purchasing journey for flooring can take up to six months, during which approximately 40% of potential customers abandon their purchase plans due to complexity and stress.

Listen to the podcast: Shaw's Benjamin Liebert on Simplifying the Flooring Journey and Building Brand Clarity

"If we take that number to 20%, we don't have to worry about the economy. We don't have to worry about interest rates," Liebert said, emphasizing the opportunity for industry-wide growth.

The five pillars of Shaw's residential strategy include:

1. Building stronger brands, with Liebert emphasizing that Shaw's family brands should "complement, don't compete."
2. Creating more value through curated brand and product offerings for specific channels.
3. Implementing "hyper-local execution" while leveraging the company's scale.
4. Developing deeper partnerships through co-development and tailored solutions.
5. Operating as "one team" both internally and with partners.

Liebert emphasized the importance of local market adaptation: "We are going to be geographically assorted with products, colors, designs, styles that work in your market. The days of pushing one solution to everybody are over."

Shaw Industries President Tim Baucom outlined three key elements for the company's future: flooring's untapped potential, strategic execution, and industry optimism. Noting flooring's underperformance compared to other home improvements, Baucom stated, "Over the last 25 years, we have systematically become less and less and less of what people invest in when they build their homes."

The strategy centers on what Baucom calls "the Shaw innovation process," which he defines as: "keep your core vital, use that to expand into adjacencies quickly and then always be looking for more." He emphasized that "the core of our core is residential carpet sold to the specialty flooring deal. It is what generates everything in our enterprise." 

 "I think we've bottomed out at the end of '24, and I think the next three to five years are going to be powerful," Baucom noted. 

The Power of Brands

Each brand on the expo floor brought its best presentation of new products, combined with interactive storytelling.

"We have the best products we've had in a long time; we've made this huge investment in manufacturing,” said Carolyn Haicl, senior vice president, marketing and brands, Shaw Industries. "I'm even more excited about this innovation of storytelling together with the retailers, and the power that can bring.”

Anderson Tuftex unveiled its new brand with a focus on eco-conscious luxury consumers. The company's showcase merged garden and gallery aesthetics to emphasize the brand’s commitment to sustainability and design. Retailers discovered seven new carpet collections, including its entry into the wool category alongside new hardwood collections.

The brand targets a three-pronged audience: retailers, designers, and consumers, with primary focus on retailer and designer relationships. The company aims to appeal specifically to the architecture and design (A&D) community while maintaining a retail presence.

COREtec's 2025 expo presentation emphasizes consumer-centricity as its core focus. It focused on practical tools that retailers can implement immediately. The brand’s display featured four floor products, with water serving as a symbolic representation of the brand's vitality rather than just highlighting waterproof features.

Retailers learned about customer journey mapping with actionable insights at each stage. COREtec integrated digital in each stage, offering QR codes for accessing resources. A samples reporting tool tracks website visitor sample requests, provides retailers visibility into consumer preferences and enables data-driven inventory decisions

Shaw Floors organized its showcase space into four distinct quadrants featuring carpet, resilient flooring, hardwood, tile, and the launch of laminate products. The design draws inspiration from parks and gardens found in Savannah and Charleston, emphasizing an open, airy atmosphere with old-world charm.

The space included an interactive area where Shaw Floors engaged with customers to gather feedback on new merchandising prototypes and selling tools. A special interactive wall provided entertainment for visitors of all ages, strategically placed near their carpet collection targeted toward families.

Philadelphia Commercial invited dealers into a space focused on a curated selection of new Mainstreet offerings. Simplicity is the goal for the new Philadelphia Commercial collections, according to Lauren Daniels, product director. Dealers select the attributes—performance, color, budget—they need in a flooring solution from a menu of options. 

“Because commercial is probably not the largest piece of the business, [retailers] probably do more residential than commercial, and they may not be as comfortable in a commercial space, we need to keep it easy, simple, and fast for them,” said Daniels. 

The Natural Shelter Collection includes two new soft surface styles, Folium and Terrena, that come in matching, not coordinating, carpet tiles and broadloom. The collection takes its cue from organic textures found in nature as well as the “resimercial” trend, offering a warm residential feel in a commercial solution. 

The Refined Linen Collection brings a soft surface look and feel to a hard surface product. What is unique about this product is that it is offered in a 6’ x 48” plank; the pattern travels across the plank rather than lengthwise; and it is a gluedown or looselay application, which, according to Daniels, Shaw is seeing a huge trend in growth in the looselay product category due to the dimensional stability. 

“When [dealers] install products like this, they don't get callbacks, they don't have problems,” she said. “It's easy to maneuver; it's easy to install; it's going to stand up in a commercial space.”

Localized Marketing

Shaw brands rolled out marketing tools for each brand to help retailers achieve sales success in 2025.

Baucom stressed the importance of coordinated messaging: "Today's consumers walk to buy locally, but man, do they have high expectations. They hold you accountable to the best local leaders of every category."

"What I've always seen work really well is doing strong national marketing, consistent messaging all the way through the retailer," Haicl said. "The way to do that is to give the retailer as many assets, tools, programs as you can for them to take and add their brand because that's the local brand but make sure it's consistent throughout. One example is our partnership with Cyncly for COREtec and the ad packages; we have all those ready to go." 

Another example is Shaw Floor’s Pet Perfect collaboration with the American Kennel Club. Ads for the Pet Perfect products has been created with Shaw’s dealers in mind. Each retailer can now create their own tag to the commercial, showcasing the same brand message across all the aligned dealers. At the convention, retailers were invited to use social media and video booths to record their own promotions, tagging national campaigns to their local markets. 

"The SFN team has a producer so [the retailer] can film a part of a commercial to tag on to ours," Haicl said. "It should build confidence with the consumers. They don't want go online and see different things about the brand in different places. I think the more we can be consistent with the retailers, the more confidence we'll build as a team for the consumer."

Tools for Success

The Retail Success Planning Program launched as a comprehensive partnership initiative designed to accelerate independent retailers' business growth. This tailored program combines leadership development with strategic business planning to help retailers achieve their specific goals.

Key program elements include customized business plan development, leadership training modules, one-on-one coaching support, and access to business success experts.

"Every dealer is different. Every dealer is unique. They have their own unique challenges, their own unique goals, and so if we can find ways to help and support them, that is what excites me every day," said Heather Yamanda, VP of consumer innovation. 

Shaw Member Rewards is a new loyalty program that Shaw launched for 2025, whereby dealers earn points for growing their businesses. The program offers three loyalty levels: Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Dealers must track their points each month. For example, 10 points are earned for every $100,000 in net sales. Additionally, points can be earned by participating in training, promotions and conventions. Each month, a statement is sent out detailing the points earned. The plans are customizable.

 "Gold is great, platinum is powerful, but diamonds are forever," Baucom said.

Growing Main Street 

Shaw Industries is breaking down the traditional barriers between residential and commercial flooring operations to accelerate growth in its Main Street business.

Liebert announced at the company's recent flooring network convention that Shaw's commercial leadership team would join the residential dealer event for the first time, marking a shift toward what executives call a "One Shaw" approach.

"One of the common themes that I think I heard in every single customer visit, every single meeting, every single customer that visited Dalton, all of the Dallas markets, the south markets—I need help with my commercial business," Liebert said.

Commercial division leader Kelley Fain noted that many network members already have significant commercial operations.

"Almost all of you in this room do commercial work of some sort and a large group of you do more commercial work than you do residential," Fain told dealers. "We want to help you accelerate that growth and profitability."

The company's strategy includes the integration of Shaw Contract and Patcraft commercial brands with dealer operations, enhanced local market support through dedicated account managers, educational programs on specified commercial projects, and best practice sharing from successful commercial dealers

"This won't be something we'll fix overnight, but we've got a great opportunity if we're willing to be patient and work a little bit differently together to really create some explosive growth and help take share in the market," Fain said.

Women in Power

Shaw Flooring Network's new women-focused initiative, Power of the Network (PoWer), is transforming the flooring industry landscape. This dealer-driven group aims to support every woman working in SFN member businesses, from receptionists to installation managers.

Led by co-chairs Mindy Lawley of Brian's Flooring and Design, in Birmingham, Alabama, and Rebecca Tonowski of BFC Flooring and Design Center in Edmonton, Canada,  PoWer emerged from the Women's Symposium at Connect Convention. The group partners with Shaw's internal Women's Innovation Network (WIN) and industry group Women in the Flooring Industry to create a comprehensive support system.

"There's a need to have a platform, a community of women within the network. When our women are successful, our companies thrive," said Dani Brock, VP retail experience. 

The initiative has garnered support from male business owners who recognize that understanding and empowering women is crucial for success - particularly given that women drive most purchasing decisions in the flooring industry.

 "Most decisions are driven by women, so if you don't understand women, you're not going to have a very successful business going forward," Haicl said. "I think it's about understanding women in and out of the community because they are shoppers as well."