How DeSitter Flooring Increased Masland Sales by 51%

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There is nothing more daunting to a flooring business than changing your sales process. 

Why? Because changing old habits is extremely challenging. Like the saying goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Well, don’t tell that to DeSitter Flooring, a third-generation, family-owned and operated flooring store that has been serving the Glen Ellyn and La Grange communities for 103 years.

With over a century of experience, a well-defined sales process, and an impressive track record of success, DeSitter wasn’t necessarily seeking changes to how they sell flooring.

That's until Ken Holthaus, General Manager at DeSitter, learned about Broadlume's new Digital Retailing.

Digital Retailing allows retailers to offer customers an easy-to-navigate shopping experience that generates higher-quality leads and employs cutting-edge technology to drive more sales and higher profits.

When Ken asked which suppliers were participating, he was delighted to see The Dixie Group offered as a launch partner.

"I was very impressed to see them do this. I know how hard it is for you to convince suppliers to take advice on how to move forward with digital. I'm glad to see Dixie being a big part of this."

DeSitter Flooring signed up to be the first retailer to test Masland products and couldn't believe the results.

51% Increase in Sales

In just 3 months, DeSitter noticed an unusual spike in sales with one brand: Masland. The Digital Retailing shopping experience was setting up easy sales for his retail sales associates (RSAs) and Ken’s sales reports reflected it.

“The proof is in the pudding about sales, so far this year, we are up 51% on Masland year-to-date. It says a lot because let’s face it: in this economy right now, there’s a lot of top brands and suppliers that are down.”

“So in a market, especially for a brand like Masland, to be up - it has a great story to be told”

With increased sales and less effort, Ken and the team at DeSitter focused on encouraging shoppers to the Digital Retailing website experience on their website.

Consistency Delivers Massive Gains

Like any new habit, such as working out, you start to get addicted to the process and results. The more you workout, the stronger you get, and the more motivated you become.

And that’s exactly what Ken and the DeSitter Flooring team felt with Digital Retailing. With a 51% increase in only 3 months, they’re excited to build upon this initial success.

“We want to understand the consumer mindset and buying habits and how a company like [DeSitter] could be a part of that,” said Ken.

To better understand shopper habits and how they could integrate it into their sales process, they looked at their reporting from their Broadlume website and visualizer.

During the first 3 months of this program, DeSitter saw a 430% increase in Masland product pageviews and almost 1,000 uploaded images to the visualizer by shoppers.

Ken shared, 'These aren’t just shoppers who are bored on a Sunday looking at flooring; it’s interested shoppers spending time on our website.'

This is the seamless shopper experience in action: allowing customers to self-educate, engage, and interact with products, and even order a sample online without any effort required by the store. 

Digital Retailing provided a glimpse into how technology can simply the buying experience for both the shopper and DeSitter. 

To build upon their success, Ken is training his team to sell with the website, visualizer, and e-commerce sample ordering.

You Gotta Bring It Home

While Digital Retailing is a fundamentally different way to sell flooring, its not difficult or hard to learn. In fact, it makes selling easier for flooring retailers. 

For instance, instead of your sales team waiting for a customer to walk in, they are calling a lead who just received a sample they ordered from your website. 

How does Digital Retailing make this even easier? Your sales team will receive an e-mail with the lead’s contact info along with details on the product that was just delivered, providing your sales team laser precision timing to reach out.

This program helps salespeople be proactive, which is exactly what Ken is seeing at DeSitter: 

“There’s a lot Broadlume does to bring us interested and educated shoppers…but it’s not just about capturing leads, it's how you handle those leads and we’re all about that - you gotta jump on those and bring it home.”

The insights and information that Digital Retailing provides to DeSitter’s sales team is helping them close more jobs, faster, while providing the shopper with a superior shopping experience.

While the promise of Digital Retailing sounded too good to be true, Ken is now a believer and he’s excited for what’s next, 

“Broadlume is always looking to the future, I love it. To have you guys so focused on our industry, having a partner like you who has an understanding of flooring is a great opportunity for everyone.”

Want to learn more? Click here for more info on Digital Retailing.