Multichannel verkoop van vloerbedekking: case Carpet One

Je hebt soms van die branches waarvan je denkt dat ze voorlopig nog wel erg monochannel blijven, zoals die van vloerbedekkingen. Wellicht is dat zo in absolute omzet gemeten, het effect van online activiteiten op de offline omzet kan echter aanzienlijk zijn. Zoals te zien is in de cae van case de Amerikaanse vloerbedekkingverkoper Carpet One . Nu weet ik dat de grote afstanden in de VS zoiezo een stimulans zijn voor online activiteiten. Net zoals het feit dat de parkeergelegenheid in de Nederlandse steden van invloed is op de ecommerce omzet in die regio. Toch is het een mooie case.
De online omzet van vloerbedekkingen is in percentage beperkt:

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.

In absolute aantallen is dat natuurlijk interessant. Bovendien gaat het Carpet One met name ook om de leadgeneratie. Deze case bevestigt weer

dat de online potentie met name benut kan worden door bedrijven met een offline aanwezigheid:

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.
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.