Well yes and no. If you do a search on Google for "hardwood flooring", "laminate flooring" or "vinyl flooring" you might see Walmart listed in the search result listings. See the image below...
So are the flooring manufacturers actually selling Walmart direct? No, not yet, but they are selling a 3rd party dot.com who is affiliated with Walmart and doing the actually selling of the flooring. See screen shot below...
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The dot.com is CSNStores.com and they are one of the largest and most successful e-retailers today. From what I can tell they have no real brick-and-mortar stores, just 200+ websites selling all kinds of different products, including flooring.
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They have their own flooring e-commerce website too...
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Here are some of the flooring brands they say they offer online...
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So how do smart flooring retailers market against Walmart and CSN Stores? Pretty easy... sell your local services, installation expertise, product expertise and all the things that make your customers want to buy from you. The Internet is a price driven medium, but flooring is about much more than price. We know consumers don't understand flooring , they don't know brands and they don't understand installation. So market your flooring specialty store, not just the brands you carry and tell local shoppers why buying from you is a better choice. Make sure your website and web marketing initiatives talk about you and the great services you provide for your customers.
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