Hot 2021 Flooring Trends for Fall and Winter

While crisp golden and crimson leaves cover the ground outdoors, 2021 fall and winter flooring trends make an impression indoors. Here are a few popular products coming to stores this season.

As always, hardwood flooring tops the list. At least, anything that looks like hardwood flooring, that is. Faux wood products are more practical than real wood, so the happy middle ground is engineered hardwood. With a variety of colors and dimensions, it is beautiful, durable, and offers a wide range of style options. The ones what are water-resistant, can be used in virtually any room, which is always attractive. Bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, hallways, and more are still a welcome arena for engineered wood in 2021.

As an accent piece, tile provides a splash of color in entryways, mudrooms, kitchens, and outdoor spaces, particularly in the south. In addition, ceramic tile designs of natural and untreated wood will be popular in 2021. The look of wood can evoke feelings of calmness found in nature. It goes to show that the wood look is popular, even if it is on tile.

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) is not new, but it is continuing. Gaining popularity from year to year, it continues to rank high with DIY homeowners, with grey being the overriding color choice. The easy-to-install process of glue down, self-adhesive, or snap-together tiles and planks makes it an attractive option for do-it-yourselfers. It is created with a digital photograph of wood or stone, and the top layer is covered with a protective urethane coating. Best of all, LVT is soft to walk on, waterproof, beautiful, and easy to maintain.   

A specific type of luxury vinyl tile is the high-quality embossed-in-register (EIR). This is the top-of-the-line luxury vinyl tile. It creates the appearance and texture of natural wood and stone with three-dimensional wood grain surfaces. The words ’embossed in registration’ mean the texturing follows the patterns in the image. As the laminates are heated, a metal plate that contains a pattern pressed into the surface material creates convex and concave ridges in the laminate, giving it a deeper color and more natural look. The texture perfectly lines up with and matches the wood portrayed in the top image’s layer.

In a different arena, electrostatic dissipative flooring (ESD) removes static from people that build up over the day from clothes, floors, or carpeting. Used mainly in the electronics industry to keep workers safe, ESD can prevent shocks ranging in severity from mildly annoying to catastrophic. As part of a complex flooring system, ESD works in conjunction with footwear, garments, and grounding straps to minimize and control proper grounded discharge. Primarily used in commercial complexes, homeowners interested in protecting their devices may benefit from ESD as well.

Almost like shag and similar to Berber, frieze carpet has a fun texture. It is made with tight twists, which is cleaner and more durable than other carpets, and its slightly long, curly fibers hide seams, footprints, and messes. The informal appearance can be a welcome change from sleek, formal hard-surfaced floors. Although hard-surfaced floors are generally preferred for high traffic areas, there is still a place for carpet in casual rooms with high traffic, such as hallways, family rooms, and bedrooms. So, if you are looking for a not-so-fancy carpet option, frieze is a popular flooring alternative this year.

Flooring Communication

As a flooring retailer, it’s always important to stay aware of trends as they tend to change from season to season. It’s also important to make sure you’re communicating often with your suppliers to be informed of inventory, pricing and more. With VendorPriceBook.com, communication–including up-to-date pricebooks–is easier than ever. Check out our platform to learn more: VendorPriceBook.com.

4 Ways you Can Increase Productivity in Your Flooring Business (That you can implement today)

It’s no secret that running your own business is no easy task. Between attracting new clients, completing current jobs, managing employees, and the countless other items on your to-do list, each day can feel totally overwhelming.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to achieve your business goals with less work AND in less time? Believe it or not, this is a possibility: all you have to do is increase productivity. Here are a few tips to help you boost productivity in your flooring business — starting today!

Invest in Your Sales Team

Every flooring business needs an exceptional sales team if they’re going to succeed. Flooring is a product that most customers don’t know much about; the customers expect sales reps to be informative and helpful (while business owners expect them to be persuasive and land those clients).

If you want your flooring business to be more productive, you MUST invest in the men and women selling your services. Give them adequate training and support so they can answer all your customers’ questions. Incentivize them with fair commissions. The more support you give to your sales team, the harder they will work to get you new jobs.

Invest in your sales team

Optimize Your Inventory

In the flooring business, you earn money for every job you complete — and if you’re constantly delaying projects because of a miscommunication at the warehouse, you’re letting money slip through your fingers. The best way to complete jobs quickly and speed up productivity is to be prepared with organized and optimized inventory.

Make sure that you’re taking inventory of your flooring regularly, so you know exactly what you have available and what you need to order right away. You can even digitize your warehouse with a shared spreadsheet or inventory software, giving you a real-time look into the flooring you have ready for use.

Automate Your Marketing Efforts

As a flooring business owner, you probably know everything about your flooring options and the process of laying each one. But do you know what you might not know about? Effectively marketing your business to new clients.

Good marketing is a vital part of running a productive business — but that doesn’t mean you need to spend precious hours figuring out how to do it! Instead, hand off the work to an automated marketing program or platform. These tools can help you target customers and attract eyeballs, even while you’re busy doing other important work.

Streamline Project Management

Finally, the best way to improve productivity is to manage your projects more effectively! There are many project management programs you can use to keep track of timelines, take notes on client requests or project details, and even keep tabs on which clients have paid their bills!

When you use a project management program or app, you are making sure that every member of your team has the information they need to do their job well AND get it done quickly. The result: a more productive business and many more happy clients!

Luckily, with VendorPriceBook.com, all you need to do instantly connect with your flooring suppliers, look up pricing and even make an order all in one place. It’s free to try, so check it out today.