How Tariffs Are Squeezing the Flooring Industry—and What Smart Retailers Are Doing About It

If you're in the flooring business, you've probably felt the pressure. Material costs are climbing. Supply chains are shifting. And once again, tariffs are at the center of it all. In 2025, flooring retailers and distributors are bracing for impact as the U.S. government reintroduces steep tariffs on a wide range of Chinese-made flooring products.

This time, it’s not a temporary ripple. It’s a sea change.

“Retailers, distributors and manufacturers are now recalibrating their cost structures and looking for operational efficiencies to absorb the hit.”— Floor Covering News

Margins are getting squeezed. Customer expectations haven’t changed. And most flooring businesses are still using outdated systems to manage their quotes, jobs, payments, and customer data. That combination is a recipe for lost time, lower profit, and a lot of frustration.

But here's the opportunity: the companies that modernize their operations now will be the ones that protect—and grow—their market share over the next 12 months.

Let’s break it down.

What the New Tariffs Mean for Flooring Retailers in 2025

The latest round of tariffs has sent a clear signal. Products like LVT, SPC, and engineered hardwoods imported from China are facing up to 45% additional costs. These increases aren’t theoretical—they’re already showing up in your supplier quotes.

“Importers are preparing for price hikes to ripple through every layer of the industry—from warehouse to showroom floor.”— Floor Covering Weekly

Even retailers who source from outside China are feeling the pinch. As manufacturers scramble to move production to countries like Vietnam and Mexico, capacity is constrained. Lead times are longer. Prices remain unstable.

And while all of that happens behind the scenes, customers still expect accurate quotes, clean timelines, and flawless installs.

The Operational Toll of Rising Costs

Here’s the real cost of tariffs that rarely gets discussed: inefficiency.

Most flooring businesses today are still cobbling together their operations using outdated POS systems, paper job folders, Excel spreadsheets, and a lot of text messages. When everything gets more expensive, those small inefficiencies start to eat away at what’s left of your margin.

“Retailers need to adapt quickly to avoid losing profitability. That means reducing waste and maximizing operational control.”— Floor Trends Magazine

Double data entry, slow quote turnarounds, missed follow-ups, inventory mistakes—these things were annoying before. Now they’re expensive.

The Real Opportunity: Streamline Before Your Competitors Do

Here’s what the best-run flooring businesses are doing right now:

Centralizing their quoting, job tracking, scheduling, and customer communications

Moving away from PDF quotes and toward digital approvals with payment links

Tracking inventory in real time—not with sticky notes or Excel

Giving their teams mobile tools that actually make fieldwork easier

The truth is, digital transformation isn’t optional anymore. It’s strategic survival.

“There’s no margin for error anymore. This is the year when technology moves from ‘nice to have’ to mission critical.”— Floor Covering Weekly

Why Service Buddy Is Becoming the Standard for Flooring Businesses

Service Buddy was built specifically for flooring companies. From retailers with multiple showrooms to family-owned cleaning and repair businesses, our platform was designed to simplify everything that happens once the sale begins.

• ‍Quotes: Create professional quotes with digital approvals and payment options‍
• Scheduling: Track installs, deliveries, cleanings, and repairs in one place‍
• Customer Communication: Automated updates and text messages reduce no-shows and missed pickups‍
• Inventory: Know exactly what’s in stock, on hold, or en route‍
• Job Tracking: Assign tasks, upload images, and keep teams in sync—without emails or paperwork

One of our clients—an East Coast retailer with two locations—cut administrative hours by 40% and doubled their quote approval speed within 60 days of onboarding.

They didn’t lay anyone off. They just optimized their process.

Tariffs Will Keep Rising. Costs Will Keep Climbing. What Will You Do?

In a market like this, every inefficiency is expensive. Flooring retailers and distributors who treat this like a temporary problem are missing the point. Tariffs are just one piece of a larger trend: uncertainty, inflation, and squeezed margins are the new normal.

The ones who win will be the ones who operate like it.

If you’re still managing your business with a system from 2008, now is the time to change that. Not next year. Not when things calm down. Because they won’t.

The smartest flooring businesses are investing in software—not laying off staff. They’re creating clarity, streamlining workflows, and giving their teams the tools to do more with less.

That’s exactly what Service Buddy is built for.

Let’s Talk—Before Your Competitors Do

If you’re serious about protecting profit in a tough market, we should talk. Our team can walk you through what a modern operation looks like, what time investment is required, and how to implement with zero disruption to your current jobs.

Margins are getting squeezed. Don’t let outdated systems make it worse.

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