By Matthew Spieler
CHARLESTON, S.C.—There was a time in the not too distant past when the launching of a company Web site was done with little to no fanfare—a small press release at most. Shaw Industries understands times have changed and, to emphasize the point, it welcomed dealers and other invited guests here for the relaunching its shawfloors.com site, which officially goes online Oct. 9.

The event was held in conjunction with the unveiling of Southern Living magazine’s Idea House in which Shaw is the national sponsor for carpet products.

“Many folks in the flooring business do not get that excited about the Web,” said Scott Sandlin, Shaw’s vice president of marketing. “If the event would have been around a new showroom concept there would have been a frenzy of excitement. Things have changed. And that’s why we did this to show how important a tool we at Shaw feel the Internet has become.”

In fact, the Internet is such an integral part of the consumer’s life, Shaw’s research puts it as the largest single area of movement by the consumer.

“The Web is now the number one source for flooring information for the consumer, above a retail sales associate,” he explained. “Everyone has to pay attention to this. Over half the consumers coming into our customers’ stores have been on the Web researching product. Our job is make sure that we stay on the leading edge of this digital revolution for our customers— the retailers.”

In recent years, Shaw certainly has spent considerable time and research to create a site to meet the needs of the consumer while also driving her to a Shaw retailer. “Our main goal for the new shawfloors.com is to bridge the consumer’s research experience with her retail shopping experience,” said Sandlin. “The site’s features help to pave the way for Shaw dealers to make the final sale and help consumers feel good about their purchase.”

He stressed that while Shaw has taken great pains to make dealers an integral part of the site, “it is a consumer-based tool that our retailers can put their arm around make it a part of their selling process.”

To get to this point, Steve Abernathy, Shaw’s director of marketing technology, said you have to go back four years to when the company first started looking at the Web as a tool. “At that time, it was mainly used just as a brochure presentation— a catalog of our products. As technology improved, especially with the widespread use of broadband, other things began taking place online, such as research and planning. That made us realize we needed to do something more, especially since manufacturers were being leaned on for information and product knowledge.”

That was all the original shawfloors.com. “What we are launching now is really part two of shawfloors, and is the result of extensive research and testing.”

Sandlin added the company has spent over a year-and-a-half developing the new site. “We have had these concepts for our Web site in our plans for at least 18 months.”

About 10 months ago, Shaw teamed with Resource Interactive, which specializes in gender- driven online marketing, to begin production and testing. “It is a ton of work to pull things like we are doing together,” he explained, “and to make sure that they work. Many times you hear of failures after a long development road in the digital world and we wanted to make sure that failure was not an option here.”

The research showed how males and females interact and use the Internet. And, as with everything else in life, there were major differences.

Women want empowerment decision making. For this, they want a narrow search, they want to see the product in context, they are twice as likely to use visualization tools.

Males, on the other hand, want a product’s features and facts. They want product reviews, the price and a comparison of the products.

The main common points are both sexes use the Internet to locate a store and they use it to save time. They expect a Web site to be streamlined and offer a simplified process.

“Everything Shaw did on the site was to simplify things,” Abernathy said. “Purchasing flooring is still a confusing process for many reasons. One is the actual process. The other is that flooring is just a piece of a larger project—it’s part of her vision of the total home, and she feels she is missing a trusted flooring expert.”

Shaw analyzed the various phases women go through when thinking of purchasing flooring and used that as part of its basis for building the Web site.

Shawfloors.com is constructed on certain principles, such as empowered productivity and providing the user with a welcoming relationship.

Todd Callaway, Shaw’s manager of Web marketing, said the site is clean and simple to navigate and allows consumers to understand the products and select the ones right for them.

A global navigation tool makes it easy for them to move through the site and immediately find what they want—even down to a local dealer who carries the specific product she is interested in.

The interactive “Try on a Floor” tool helps consumers overcome their lack of design confidence by allowing them to: Visualize product in various room scene settings, save favorite products and articles, order product samples, and get advice by chatting live with Shaw service representatives.

By year’s end, consumers will be able to use their own rooms by uploading images into the site. In addition to being able to locate a dealer with a specific product, the site will soon let users visit dealer profile pages that feature store-specific information and promotions.

To help drive traffic to the Web site, Shaw will not only advertise it to consumers, it is kicking off the launch with a two-month “I Want a Rug Instant Win and Floor Makeover Sweepstakes.” Shaw is giving away one area rug every hour for 60 days, totaling 1,440 rugs, to registered site visitors. There will also be a grand prize drawing for a $10,000 floor makeover.

“We feel strongly that Shaw must excite and educate her about flooring so that our Shaw retailers can win the sale at the highest possible return to them,” Sandlin concluded. “The center of our Web strategy is the fact we feel we can help our customers make more money and have a more satisfied consumer.”