NFA Vendor Partners Offer Retail Solutions

John Callahan, national accounts manager, Karndean DesignFlooring, said he's seeing more trends coming to the United States from Europe, and consumers are using these inspirations to make their spaces unique. Photo: Floor Trends.

Cindy Becker, senior buyer at General Floor, reviews product and merchandising with the Phenix team. Photo: Floor Trends.

Len Andolino Dixie .jpg — Len Andolino, vice president - Decorative Division, The Dixie Group, gave NFA retailers a preview of the new rug designs he has in store for 2022. Photo: Floor Trends.

Dixie Hard Surface.jpg — The Dixie Group's hard surface division has been working on a number of SKUs of Trucor SPC that are proprietary to NFA. Photo: Floor Trends.

The Armstrong team said it aims to make the sales process easier by adding QR code stickers on the back of each sample board utilizing Roomvo technology. Photo: Floor Trends.

Republic Floors works through warehousing and logistics possibilities with Cindy Becker and David Cometz of General Floor. Photo: Floor Trends.

Mannington Jay Kopelson.jpg — Jay Kopelson, vice president, Mannington Mills, shares where bevel technology is headed. Photo: Floor Trends.

Vendor partners at the National Floorcovering Alliance spring meeting offered products and solutions aimed at helping these top dealers sell more floors in 2022. Here are a few highlights of what they saw.

Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Solutions

Tile manufacturers offered a number of solutions for outdoor spaces. With more homeowners spending more time outdoors, they are renovating and building spaces to expand the liveable space of their homes for all seasons. Answering this trend, Daltile showcased its line of porcelain pavers.

MSI Creative Director Emily Holle shared a new indoor-outdoor display that combines slip-resistant porcelain tile with matching LVT. "We're seeing higher consumer demand for home design and remodels with seamless indoor to outdoor flow," she said. She noted that the company's coordinated products—pavers, tiles, pool copings and LVT—offer dealers a one-stop shop that is aimed to help retailers increase project scope and boost ticket sales.

Cali shared more of its indoor-outdoor concept, "Your Floor Outdoors." While many companies have moved into kitchen, bath and plumbing to capture larger project tickets, Cali is also seeing a big opportunity with outdoor spaces. "We feel that 'Your Floor Outdoor' falls into that new category—it's a bolt-on," said Bob Fish, vice president and general manager, Cali. "You're in the house and the consumer's comfortable with you. Why not sell the deck? Why not sell them turf? Why not sell the outdoor rugs?"

Simplifying Kitchen & Bath Design

Emser launched a curated kitchen and bath program to help retailers and consumers save time when designing these spaces. Curated design boards consist of the company's best-selling floor tile, wall, tile and decorative mosaics in 24 professionally designed sample boards. The boards feature today's trends in wood-look, stone, marble and contemporary styles. "Consumers want everything curated for them and they want it professionally designed--it's very time consuming," said Randall Sheehe, director of strategic accounts, North America.

Digital Marketing

Armstrong aims to streamline the sales and product selection process by adding an individualized QR code sticker on the back of each sample and board, according Warren Avery, vice president of sales-West, retail strategic accounts. The QR code brings the consumer to a website that offers product information, room scenes and the Roomvo visualizer.

The team at Roomvo floor visualizer said they have added watermarks to images so that the retailer logo and basic product info is included on every image a consumer uses to visualize a space. Analytics are offering dealers a quick way to know which products the most attraction, and they have added QR codes to simplify how consumers get their photo into the visualizer. Core NFA vendors who are now on Roomvo include American Olean, Armstrong, Cali, Daltile, Dreamweaver, Emser MSI and Republic Floor. The team is working on adding NFA's private product collection is available in Roomvo on launch, adding the ability to use multiple surfaces in the same image and enhance product info for each image.

Digital marketing agency Mobile Marketing said 65% of NFA retailers are clients of the agency. During tabletops, they discussed solutions that help turn customer leads into quotes—automatically with attribution and taking into consideration real-time inventories and price.

Designer Solutions

John Callahan, national accounts manager, Karndean DesignFlooring, said he's seeing more trends coming to the United States from Europe, and consumers are using these inspirations to make their spaces unique. For this reason, the company is seeing more use of chevron and herringbone patterns.