You can’t read the news today without seeing something about Amazon, Walmart and other big e-commerce players jockeying to gain digital market share. From groceries to fashion to most small packaged goods they have become just a couple of clicks away.
Luckily, flooring products so far have not seriously come under their radar. And for good reasons — flooring is bulky, not easy to install and handling cartons of flooring is costly.
Yet, I frequently get calls from smart retailers who have the desire to try selling flooring online. I can’t blame them. The thought of expanding their market reach across the internet sounds like the right strategy for success in today’s digital world.
But selling flooring online takes a lot of planning and investment. Let’s look at some of the hurdles to address to be successful at selling flooring online.
Online Marketing
How will potential flooring buyers find you online? Getting to page one in Google’s search results leaves you with two choices:
1) Pay-per-click advertising using Google AdWords can get you listed instantly on page one but it costs a lot of money and understanding of how Google AdWords works.
2) Getting listed on page one of Google’s organic search results isn’t an easy task either. With thousands of other websites competing, it takes a lot of patience to be successful.
Inventory
So often today the online flooring seller is dependent on their supplier’s inventory. Now you have the customer’s money and a new order only to find out the product is on backorder or not in stock. Ideally, you should have every SKU in stock that you are selling online.
Shipping
Flooring is heavy and has to be shipped via an LTL carrier. Any claims should be handled between the consumer and the shipping company, but the consumer doesn’t see it that way. They bought the flooring from you and you don’t want bad reviews, or worse, cancelled credit card transactions.
Returns
All the big e-commerce players, such as Amazon, make returns simple and easy, just slap the return label on the package and put the box outside your front door. Try that with flooring!
Claims
Claims in flooring are often a nightmare. For the big online players, it’s easy — just deduct it from the mill’s invoices and move on, but it’s not that easy for the average flooring dealer.
Communication
Wouldn’t it be nice to sell online like Amazon and not get any phone calls? Unfortunately, flooring buyers have a lot of questions so the phones ring and you have to have knowledgeable flooring people to answer them.
Bottom line — selling flooring online has many hurdles to be successful and get a return on your investment. Can it be done? Absolutely. But it takes time, money and digital savviness.
John Simonson of Webstream Dynamics & GetFiveStarReviews.pro has been helping flooring companies with their online marketing for over 19 years. He can be reached at john@webstreamdynamics.com.