Leveling up the in-store experience: What makes the showroom matter?

This past May, hundreds of flooring retailers gathered at Cyncly Connect Flooring 2025 to trade insights on what it takes to succeed in today’s market. The conversations were varied, and one theme kept resurfacing: in an age where digital research drives buying decisions, the showroom still matters. In fact, it may matter more than ever.

Flooring is not a commodity purchase. It’s tactile, design-driven, and deeply personal. Customers walk through a showroom to imagine how your products will shape their homes. And yet, many retailers admit that their showrooms are under pressure. Rising costs, changing consumer expectations, and fragmented workflows mean it’s harder to deliver the seamless, inspiring experience customers demand.

So, what’s holding showrooms back — and how can retailers turn them into a true differentiator?

The challenges facing today’s showroom

Retailers at the event shared familiar pain points. First, pricing inconsistencies between displays, online listings, and quotes, which erode trust. Second, retailers shared workflow gaps where sales teams lose leads or delay quotes, causing customer frustration. Third, many retailers face data blind spots — they know which products sell well, but not why, or they’re missing insights on customer behavior. Finally, companies using multiple systems shared the frustration of disconnected journeys where inspiration in the showroom doesn’t translate smoothly into measurement, ordering, and installation.

These challenges aren’t just headaches for your team. They directly impact conversion rates, margins, and long-term loyalty.

Strategies for elevating the showroom experience

The good news: retailers have the power to improve. The right mix of merchandising, process discipline, and technology can transform the showroom into a growth engine. Based on what I saw and heard at Cyncly Connect Flooring, there are several practical steps retailers can take:

1. Merchandise with intention

• Group products by category and style to make navigation intuitive.
• Highlight premium lines and bestsellers at focal points.
• Use lighting and signage to draw attention and clarify pricing.
• Rotate displays based on performance data: if it’s not selling, don’t let it dominate floor space.

2. Make pricing transparent and trustworthy

• Standardize price tags and signage across the showroom.
• Use clear formulas and automation to ensure updates are consistent.
• Highlight promotions or bundles in ways that are easy for staff to explain and customers to understand.

3. Streamline the sales workflow

• Equip staff with mobile quoting tools so estimates can be created on the spot.
• Integrate CRM and scheduling tools with your sales systems to reduce follow-up delays.
• Use digital measurement apps that feed floor plan data directly into ordering systems, reducing errors and rework.

4. Harness data for smarter decisions

• Run regular product performance and margin reports to identify top sellers.
• Use customer demographics and purchase history to refine which displays and promotions drive traffic.
• Track installer schedules and job completion data to spot bottlenecks before they impact customers.

5. Train and empower the team

• Reducing administrative burdens (such as with connected systems that share data across the consumer journey) make it easy for salespeople to sell.
• Provide installers and estimators with mobile tools to complete job details from the job site.
• Share dashboards with managers so they can coach based on real performance metrics.

The showroom as part of the full journey

Perhaps the most important insight from Cyncly Connect was this: the showroom doesn’t stand alone. The showroom can inspire, sparking ideas and confidence. It’s also just one critical touchpoint in a connected journey that spans inspiration, design, sales, and installation.

• Design: Digital tools that connect showroom selections to room visualizers or design software keep the customer engaged and reduce uncertainty. 
• Sales: Efficient quoting, scheduling, and communication tools ensure the enthusiasm created in the showroom isn’t lost in follow-up delays. 
• Installation: Transparency doesn’t end when the order is placed. Real-time updates, consistent communication, and seamless handoffs reinforce the professionalism customers first saw in the showroom. 

When these pieces work together, the showroom becomes more than a display space. Instead, it serves as the anchor of a trusted, end-to-end experience that customers are willing to pay for and recommend to others.

So, while showrooms remain the heart of flooring retail, their role is evolving. The retailers who will thrive are those who view the showroom not as a sales floor, but as the starting point of a carefully designed customer journey. By combining merchandising discipline, workflow efficiency, and data-driven insights, flooring retailers can create showroom experiences that inspire customers and drive lasting growth.