Evan Hackel, president of Carpet One Floor & Home

By Steven Feldman
Denver—After watching companies like Empire Today and ifloor.com make significant inroads in the floor covering retail market, Carpet One Floor & Home is giving its members a powerful vehicle to compete in the growing shop-at-home and Internet channels.

At its biannual convention, which for the first time was held simultaneously with parent company CCA Global’s other interests— Flooring America, International Design Guild, ProSource, Stone Mountain, Rug Décor, The Floor Trader, Lenders One, The Biking Solution, et al—Carpet One members were introduced to the group’s aggressive e-commerce strategy. The revamped carpetone.com, slated to launch in October, will allow consumers to not only purchase flooring online from their nearest Carpet One retailer, but will also give them the opportunity to request shop-at-home services.

According to Evan Hackel, president of CCA Global, this is a tool that will continue to help build the Carpet One brand. “It provides national identity.”

He added that carpetone.com represents an industry first. While there may be a litany of Web sites where consumers can purchase flooring online, this takes the game to a whole new level. “We are the first company to sell all categories of installed floor covering online in North America; no one has done it this way before.”

The pricing strategy also breaks new ground. “Customers want to see prices on the Internet, but only those who are selling uninstalled flooring show prices,” he said. “We are going to show prices, but only for Carpet One style names and Carpet One brands.”

The best part, Hackel said, is the business is almost all incremental. “This will make money for our members they otherwise would not see.”

The key here is that customers pre-shop on the Web. In fact, Carpet One research reveals 77% of those in the market for floor covering are likely to search options online, but only 27% were likely to purchase from an Internet-only source. “Carpetone.com gets to customers before they go to the home center, before they go to Empire, before they go to your competition,” said Stan Langer, vice president of marketing.

Meantime, the research also revealed that consumers prefer multichannel retailers over pure brick-and-mortar. A full 80% said they would purchase from an online source that also had a brick-and-mortar store. “Carpetone.com allows us to be multichannel,” Langer said.

So how does Carpet One ensure customers find their way to carpetone.com? The plan runs the gamut from buying key words on search engines like Google and Yahoo to banners and links on high-traffic Web sites geared to women such as oprah.com and ivillage.com.

Once the consumer finds her way to carpetone.com, she will be required to enter her ZIP code. The banner at the top of the page will then bear the logo of the nearest Carpet One retailer, and the information and products that appear on the page will have been customized to that retailer.

Hackel and Langer stressed that carpetone.com is certain to be a lead generation vehicle. The consumer will have three ways to purchase flooring: in store, online and in home. After driving customers to respective dealers’ Web sites, they will have the option of purchasing flooring, requesting samples online or asking that a salesperson visit her home. The samples can be purchased directly or brought by the salesperson.

Of course, she can choose to visit the store directly after utilizing the SelectAFloor tool that will determine those products that best fit her situation. SelectAFloor allows her to make choices by product, color, price, lifestyle, fiber, etc., and the results appear with price. She can also utilize the room visualization feature, where she can take a photo of any room in her home, upload it to the site and replace her floor in photo with an array of Carpet One products.

If research is any indication, consumers will be purchasing samples in droves. Langer said 64% of those surveyed said they were interested in purchasing samples online that were refundable once the purchase was made.

“Consumers dictate where they want to shop, and we have to adapt to their behavior if they shop on the Internet,” Langer said. “The shopping paradigm has shifted. The Web is now a selling market and medium.” Why? “Convenience is a huge factor. We are after the consumer who values her time.”

The potential: Today, Internet sales represent approximately 3% of all U.S. retail sales. The market for Internet flooring is between $1 billion and $1.5 billion annually. “At 10% market share we have a $100 million to $150 million annual opportunity for Carpet One retailers,” Hackel said.

But he was quick to note that this will not happen overnight. He cautioned that retailers must exercise patience as the program builds up steam. “The goal initially is for each location to receive three leads a month and two sales.”

Lees Gets Revamped

Carpetone.com is not all that’s being relaunched. The proprietary Lees for Living brand, the most successful product launch in the history of the company seven years ago, is being reincarnated. It gets a new moniker, Relax It’s Lees, along with a whole new product assortment.

According to Hackel, the idea behind the relaunch has to do with a changing consumer, who is more sophisticated and is trading up. As such, a new luxury brand must deliver on four qualies:

1. High style;
2. Technical features that differ from competing products;
3. Superior product performance, and
4. Emotional engagement.

He said Lees answers the bell on all.

“Relax It’s Lees is more than a brand; it’s evolved into a truly exclusive product,” he said. “It is demonstrably different than anything else the consumer can see out there. It will create a buzz.”

One change from the old Lees line—which has accounted for more than a quarter-billion dollars of sales in seven years—is that Mohawk is now the exclusive supplier for the Relax It’s Lees collection. Jeff Lorberbaum, chairman and CEO, talked a little about the changing consumer. “Retailers must seek new ways to excite consumers. That’s because your customers are getting smarter. They are serious about using the Internet. They are not afraid to buy on credit. They are more decisive and more demanding. They are saying, ‘Show me how this is better for my situation.’”

Lorberbaum went on to say how this breeds the need for exclusive products, particularly in a mature industry. “Lees fits into this scenario. It offers unique styling along with the best performance story and brand in the entire industry.” He implored members to capitalize on this advantage.

Mohawk has developed 22 exclusive carpet styles for the Relax It’s Lees collection. It offers new and improved stain technology from 3M and a promise from Mohawk to “deliver service unmatched in the industry.”

The line consists of 656 SKUs that were developed with member input and rounded out by Carpet One’s Product Advisory Council. It includes textured saxonies, friezes, multicolors, patterns, fashion loops, barber poles and a berber, velvet, and thick and thin. The color line combines the best Carpet One colors and the best Mohawk colors.

Members had nothing but positive things to say about the line. “I like that it’s upscale, and I like that it’s exclusive to Carpet One,” said Steve Lewis, president and CEO, Lewis Carpet One, Northbrook, Ill. “I don’t have to worry about the other CCA divisions selling it.”

Lewis also paid homage to the styling. “They did a nice job with the color palette and there’s much more style. The original line was a performance and warranty story. It was very meat and potatoes. It wasn’t a go-to in my market.”

But this time around he believes Carpet One is right on target and he is making room for the gallery in a prominent area of his store. That’s significant when one’s showroom is 24,000 square feet. “It really looks like they’ve hit the middle to upper end,” he said.

Performance is still part of the story. The line offers Scotchgard Protector with 4X Technology (an exclusive to Carpet One). The 4X is durability—the product is said to repel liquids through four hot water extractions, according to Jim Bennett, 3M’s manager, sales to CCA Global.

There are other pluses, too, Lewis said. They include:

• The 18-in. samples set it apart from everything else in the showroom;
• The line is all nylon versus a nylon/olefin mix;
• The line is all Mohawk with the promise the local reps will take care of the displays, and
• The promise that displays will ship immediately—last time, it was six to nine months.

Steve Joss, president of The Verical Connection Carpet One was equally enthused. “This is fabulous. Carpet One has finally gotten into the high-fashion, high-style business at a reasonable price. We are out of the carpet business and into the design business.”

Lees gallery in less than 200 square feet of floor space.

Joss said he was going to make the Relax It’s Lees gallery the first stop for customers. “This is our future.”