For many specialty floor covering retailers, the Main Street market—local small businesses such as shops, boutiques, churches, doctors offices and the like—have long provided a buffer when primary markets like residential replacement, new home construction and specified commercial have softened. That’s precisely the predicament in which many flooring dealers find themselves amid the current market uncertainty All the more reason, observers say, to explore available opportunities on Main Street.
“In the current economic climate, specialty flooring retailers should absolutely target the local Main Street/light commercial market,” said Eric Ruppert, senior director of product marketing and category management for Engineered Floors, parent company of the Pentz Commercial brand. “This segment offers a significant opportunity for retailers to diversify their revenue streams and increase their profit margins.”
While the broader commercial market is often highly specified, the Main Street market, Ruppert noted, is driven by local business owners and small enterprises that seek personalized service and readily available, durable and stylish products. “By focusing on this segment, retailers can cultivate lasting relationships within their community, building trust and a loyal customer base,” he explained. “Furthermore, targeting local businesses helps retailers become a more integral part of their community’s economic ecosystem. This boosts their reputation and makes them more resilient to fluctuations in the broader economy.”
Executives across the industry agree the time is ripe for dealers to go all in on Main Street. “Main Street commercial offers business diversification, providing dealers with more opportunities to balance their operations,” said Kieren Corcoran, vice president, Philadelphia Commercial. “These customers are likely familiar faces, such as veterinarians or accountants who may have recently had their home flooring replaced.”
What makes the Main Street market so appealing to retailers, observers say, is the relatively straightforward nature of the business. “Projects in the local Main Street/light commercial market typically involve interior refreshes, such as updating flooring and paint,” Corcoran added. “These projects typically do not require dealers to participate in a bid process. They also tend to be larger than typical home installations, allowing for higher profit.”
Another benefit in pursuing Main Street business right now, executives note, is the relatively quick turnaround in project completion, especially when compared to specified commercial. As Robb Myer, vice president of Aladdin Commercial, explained: “When you look at contract business versus Main Street, Main Street gives the specialty retailer an opportunity for a quick sale and additional revenue.”
For those specialty flooring retailers who might be apprehensive about aggressively targeting Main Street opportunities, Myer recommended they take “baby steps” by starting off with some smaller jobs. This might entail level-loop carpet products in small-scale rental properties. “That’s a very lucrative spot for a specialty retail dealer to kind of spread their wings,” he noted.
Turnkey programs support efforts
While Main Street business represents an opportunity for specialty retailers to further diversify their customer base and supplement sales, support from their manufacturer partners often helps move the needle. That’s why suppliers are doing their part to provide their retailer partners with a host of programs, initiatives and product packages to help dealers seal the deal.
Take Pentz Main Street Commercial, for example. The company offers a comprehensive suite of products and programs to help specialty retailers successfully capture and service the Main Street market. Its offerings include: diverse product lines, including those featuring high-performance fibers for demanding applications; and ready inventory and fast shipping, to name a few.
“We specialize in providing a wide range of commercial flooring solutions, including broadloom, modular carpet (carpet tiles) and LVT,” Ruppert stated. “These products are curated to meet the needs of various light and heavy commercial spaces, such as small offices, retail shops, medical facilities and educational settings.”
The company’s quick-ship program is especially useful for dealers serving local small businesses. “We focus on maintaining a large, readily available inventory of our core products,” Ruppert said. “Our Pentz Quick Ship program (1,500 yards in 10 business days or less) includes all Pentz Commercial products. This allows retailers to get what they need quickly, with most orders shipping within 48 hours. This is a key advantage for Main Street projects, which often have tight deadlines and require immediate solutions.”
For its part, Philadelphia Commercial also provides specialty retailers with the necessary tools to aggressively target and successfully service the Main Street/light commercial market. As Corcoran explained: “We have implemented several programs and products, including our design services, which offers tailored solutions to meet the unique needs of different building types. We also provide visualization tools that allow retailers to showcase potential designs to their clients effectively. Additionally, we have curated ‘look books’ for various building types to inspire and guide design choices.”
Philadelphia Commercial, like Pentz, also aims to support retailers with rapid delivery services. “Our commitment to efficiency is demonstrated through our in-stock and quick-ship programs, ensuring that products are readily available and can be delivered promptly. These initiatives collectively empower specialty retailers to excel in this specialized market segment.”
Aladdin Commercial also offers a variety of tools and programs to support their retailer partners in this regard. According to Myer, more than 90% of the products across its Main Street commercial portfolio are eligible to ship within 10 working days. This includes carpet tile, LVT and other products up to 2,000 yards. “We can turn these very, very quickly, and generally it’s an enhanced margin,” he explained.
Other major suppliers serving the Main Street/light commercial market are leveraging their broad portfolio of not only products but also brands to position dealers for success. AHF Contract, for example, offers a host of venerable brand names to help fulfill end-user requirements. “When you look at it from a branding perspective, we obviously lean on the Armstrong brand,” said Chris King, senior vice president of marketing, AHF Products. “If you take a step back and look at AHF—the breadth of our portfolio, our domestic offerings, the plants that we operate here stateside—we can complement pretty much everything in Main Street. We offer LVT, rigid core, sheet vinyl and engineered wood. We have the broadest portfolio as far as products in our lineup to really compete effectively in that space.”
In addition, AHF Contract provides digital assets as well as full-size and hand samples and strap sets specific to Main Street. The goal is to provide turnkey programs that help retailers raise their level of professionalism. These tools allow retailers to present themselves as experts in the market. “Our ability to leverage our assets and what we have today under AHF’s umbrella is powerful,” King said.
But it doesn’t end with product. AHF also offers delivery services by leveraging its distribution partnerships to get product into dealers’ hands when they need it. “We have the biggest distribution network and the largest distributors supporting all our products,” said Catherine del Vecchio, vice president of marketing. “This helps us service all our retailers in the market.”
Coordinated and curated Main Street product offerings also go a long way in helping Aladdin Commercial customers present a diverse offering to clients. “At Aladdin we really focus on the whole idea of ‘Aladdin Works Better Together,’ and that tagline emphasizes the fact that broadloom, carpet tile, hard surface and accessories all play well together—they all coordinate,” Myer stated. “We’ve also developed assets and sales tools for both our territory managers and RSAs to use when educating customers on the various product lines. They can have a three-minute conversation with customers and talk about the entire line.”
Longer term outlook
There are certainly opportunities in the Main Street market. However, observers point to mitigating factors that could affect the segment moving forward. The most significant are mortgage rates, inflation and weak business and consumer confidence. “The start of the year was solid, but I think at this point everybody’s worried about the rest of the year,” AHF Products’ del Vecchio stated.
At the same time, the company sees some bright spots. “There’s more opportunity, I would say, in Main Street commercial versus remodel replacement,” King said. “We see an opportunity for growth.”
Aladdin Commercial’s Myer said he is cautiously optimistic, despite an environment he described as “wonky.” Still, he said, when you look at contract, “it’s up a little bit here, a little bit there. But then you look at retail, we’re feeling some pains there.”
Philadelphia Commercial’s Corcoran views the current Main Street market as generally healthy. He noted, “though it may not be as robust as some specified markets. We are witnessing growth in the Southeast, Northeast and Southwest, particularly with resilient. Places of worship have been a notable bright spot.”
Engineered Floors’ Ruppert said the outlook for the Main Street market remains positive and resilient. He added that it is especially strong when compared to the larger, more specified commercial arena. “While the specified commercial sector can be subject to significant economic swings and lengthy project timelines, the Main Street market is more nimble and continues to see steady demand,” he explained. “Small businesses consistently need to refresh their spaces, whether for aesthetic upgrades, functional improvements or to accommodate changing business needs. This creates a continuous flow of smaller, high-margin projects for specialty retailers.”
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