Carpet One Set to Re-Launch Carpetone.com

Manchester, NH, August 21, 2006--During their meetings in Denver, Carpet One Floor & Home revealed details for their new e-commerce website, set to launch on October 1. With this launch, the company will become the first floor covering retailer to sell installed flooring to consumers through the Internet. At the revamped CarpetOne.com site, consumers will be able to gain flooring knowledge, find the perfect product for their home, order product samples and even request that a sales professional visits their house. “Our new e-commerce site is groundbreaking in the floor covering industry,” said Carpet One Floor & Home president, Evan Hackel. “Consumers are now spending more and more time conducting Internet research before they shop and actually buying products for their home online. At the new CarpetOne.com, they’ll be able to do both, and they’ll still get the personalized service from a local retailer. No one else in the industry has this type of technology available.” What makes the website unique, is that it actually mimics a customer’s in-store experience. Aesthetically, the site reflects Carpet One Floor & Home’s brand identity. And functionally, the site offers visitors three ways to shop for flooring, making it easy to use and offering accessible information to all consumers. For the consumer who knows what type of style or atmosphere she’s looking for, but not specifically the flooring, products are arranged by Carpet One Floor & Home’s SelectAFloor categories. Visitors who know exactly what they’re looking for can also search by a range of categories, including surface type, color, price, species and thickness. And finally, the new CarpetOne.com will offer another feature: the site’s visualization tool allows customers to actually see what their new flooring will look like in their home, simply by providing a photo of the room they’re shopping for. “In addition to being a user-friendly, valuable tool for customers, the new CarpetOne.com is also beneficial to our members,” explained Charlie Dilks, COO of Carpet One Floor & Home and President of Carpet One Floor & Home Canada. “The site will generate leads and facilitate communication between Carpet One Floor & Home stores and consumers in their area. Plus, each member has a customized product catalogue on the site, so that their customers will see only the products available at their local store. More importantly, our members are able to set their own pricing and sale items, based on their market.” In the upcoming year, Carpet One Floor & Home has plans to add even more features to their e-commerce site, including a “live chat” tool that allows customers to get answers to their questions instantly. In preparation for the launch, Carpet One Floor & Home will be offering thorough training so that members and their employees become CarpetOne.com certified. They will have the opportunity to complete OnLine Training courses and participate in regional training seminars to gain skills in online selling, communicating with online customers, creating customer accounts, pricing, posting local store information and more. With the launch of the new e-commerce site, Carpet One Floor & Home will take a big step towards achieving one of the key initiatives in their Five-Year Plan.