Keith Spano (left) and John Gilbert (right)
CCA Global unpacks 2023’s installation & the impact on members
[Manchester, N.H.] As CCA Global convention kicks off this month, FCW’s editor-in-chief and publisher, Amy Rush-Imber, talked with John Gilbert, president of Carpet One, and Keith Spano, president of Flooring America, Flooring Canada, The Floor Trader, International Design Guild and NISI, about the year that was and initiatives ahead. Key among the talking points is the transformative Retail 2.0.
How have Carpet One and Flooring America/Canada retailers performed in 2023?
Gilbert: Though we don’t provide actual performance data for our members, we have seen a slowdown in retail sales that’s consistent with the rest of the industry.
Where were their wins and where were their challenges?
Gilbert: The primary challenge has been retail foot traffic. We do see members having success with dialing up their local marketing efforts in order to off set the industry slowdown. Members are reporting solid successes with these local efforts.
Spano: Outside of Retail 2.0, our kitchen and bath business has shown strength throughout the year and that diversification has helped buoy our members profitability while traditional residential flooring replacement business remains soft.
This past year saw a big wave of your retail members onboarding Retail 2.0. How many are fully installed?
Gilbert: We are well over half-way through our member installs.
What has the biggest surprise been?
Gilbert: Members are reporting consistent performance improvements with customers trading up and purchasing quicker. Though not a huge surprise given we saw the same characteristics in our pilot stores, we are pleased that the results are being replicated.
Spano: Additionally, we’ve seen RSAs new to the industry take to it immediately, reducing training time and ultimately closing sales faster. Our CCA University has also done a terrific job on the many various training elements both online and in store for everyone to hit the ground running.
We hear that vendors are doing better business with you and retailers are finding success in a number of new areas. Does that track with what you are seeing?
Gilbert: What we’re hearing from vendors participating in Retail 2.0 is that those showrooms are outpacing the performance of other channels and that CCA is gaining share in a slow market.
Spano: Of course, we had some members that wanted to be in later set up waves because they wanted to remodel their showrooms, change flooring, lighting, paint, etc. prior to their installation and we’ve been able to accommodate those requests.
Can you talk about that progression and what the key markers were that changed the course for some folks?
Spano: We’re following the plan we rolled out at inception to systematically onboard all members.We spent time at the summer regional meetings with member-led panels to allow members to ask operational questions to members who are already using the system. Members love to hear from other members. As far as change goes, we’ve changed how consumers shop for flooring which goes hand in hand with changing the sales process.
What does the program’s success look like from where you sit?
Gilbert: The rollout continues very quickly, and members are reporting purchase patterns that closely mirror our pilot showrooms. We’re delighted with the feedback.
Is there anything you have done to the selection of product or how it is presented?
Spano: We continue to fine tune the product assortment based on industry issues (UFLPA) and member feedback.
What will key messaging be in Dallas?
Gilbert: We’ll be focusing on sharing tools and techniques to drive traffic to our new showrooms.
Spano: We’ll also discuss opportunities to diversify our members’ businesses.