Global.Localized.
Helping do-it-yourselfers do it themselves faster and better.
No flooring customers are more motivated than do-it-yourselfers. And no flooring store concept is better suited to meet the needs of these value-driven, time-conscious consumers than the new Floor Trader model.
Combining warehouse-like design with no-frills product presentation, The Floor Trader®, along with Stone Mountain and GCO stores, provides a high-speed, high-touch environment where customers have immediate access to the best values in retail flooring today.
Providing unmatched value and selection
The Floor Trader concept caters to do-it-yourselfers in unprecedented ways. It starts with a clean and uncluttered store layout. The Floor Trader franchise store offers customers a logical, easy-to-navigate store-within-a-store product presentation, where everything is located in a clearly defined category. Add to that large-format samples, straightforward signage, concise point-of-purchase product information and knowledgeable sales professionals, and you have the foundation of a unique and expeditious shopping experience.
Offering much more for much less
Huge selection figures prominently into The Floor Trader formula. To begin with, The Floor Trader stores deliver the best proprietary brand assortment of in-stock carpet from the United States. Through the Global Direct™ distribution system, franchised stores can offer an equally impressive array of worldwide hard surface options, including Brazilian hardwoods, European laminates, Asian bamboo and Italian porcelains. Then there’s the Factory Direct™ sampling program, which adds thousands of carpet, ceramic, laminate, wood and resilient products — all at attractive prices.
Charging ahead with conversions
The conversion of Stone Mountain and GCO stores to The Floor Trader brand and business model continues at a steady pace. Launched with fewer than a dozen stores, The Floor Trader franchise system now numbers more than 30 stores. New stores and conversions are expected to bring that total to approximately 42 in 2009.
The Floor Trader’s new model has improved the product assortment mix by featuring an equal number of soft and hard surface products. Without compromising total soft surface sales, this new model has increased overall hard surface sales over the outlet model.
Adding to an already significant lead
The Floor Trader is on the move. More conversions and more new stores will be added. At the same time, new members and new markets from outside The Floor Trader’s existing universe will be aggressively pursued.
Many strategic initiatives are in the works, including an e-Commerce strategy to capture the online consumer and a sustained effort to improve communications with and between franchisees via the all-new OutletMembers.net system.