By Wayne Fraser, Chief Information & AI Officer, Klipboard
The changing face of flooring distribution
Whether it’s engineered wood, LVT, carpet rolls or acoustic systems, flooring distributors are balancing a growing product range with rising expectations for project accuracy and service speed. Installers, contractors, and designers all expect rapid turnaround, tailored recommendations, and real-time availability. AI is no longer a distant concept for this sector. It’s becoming a critical business enabler, particularly as operational complexity and customer expectations grow.
From discussion to deployment
At Klipboard, we’ve watched how flooring distributors have evolved their thinking around AI. While once considered a “big business” investment, AI is now firmly on the radar for independent and multi-branch merchants alike. With nearly half of wholesale businesses in the UK prioritising AI investment, we’re seeing growing momentum in the flooring sector – particularly among those looking to eliminate waste, optimise stock rotation, and get better visibility into demand.
Tackling sector-specific operational friction
Flooring stock is notoriously hard to manage. Products vary by thickness, texture, colour, and installation type. And unlike fast-moving consumables, flooring materials often require accurate batch tracking, specific unit conversions (square metres to packs), and off-cut management for materials on a roll.
At Klipboard, our ERP One platform helps distributors manage this complexity through embedded AI forecasting. By using both internal data and external trends, we’re enabling more precise purchasing, reducing overstock, and improving margins on slow-moving lines.
Smarter transport for bulky orders
Delivering flooring is a challenge. The materials are large, heavy, and often need to be kept clean, dry, and undamaged. AI-led auto-routing in our Klipboard Transport Management (VIGO) tool improves the reliability and cost-effectiveness of every drop.
It considers delivery patterns, product type, location clusters, and customer preferences, so your fleet performs better, and your customers get what they need, when they need it.
Enhancing customer experience
Flooring merchants are under pressure to provide product recommendations, technical detail, and project advice at speed. AI tools like our Klipboard Copilot enable your business to instantly respond to queries on everything from availability and pricing, to installation compatibility and delivery timeframes without further increasing head count.
These tools support, not replace, human interaction, giving staff more time to focus on upselling, advice, and service excellence.
There’s a lot of noise about AI – but in many cases, it’s just old automation with a new label. What has changed is the processing power availability has grown year on year and also “LLM’s capability and availability, thus enabling a much richer experience, which Klipboard is leveraging in its products to bring AI into merchants’ workflows.” says DJ, Chief Product Officer at Klipboard.
“At Klipboard, we’re applying AI in ERP One where it delivers measurable impact: reducing manual effort, improving decision-making, and helping merchants stay ahead in a competitive market. We’re also exploring the next evolution – agentic AI – where systems start to take action, not just offer suggestions. We’re not interested in hype for hype’s sake. Our focus is on building capability that’s practical, trusted, and genuinely moves the dial.”
Scaling for the future
As flooring portfolios expand and customers demand quicker turnarounds with higher precision, AI gives distributors the ability to scale. It helps protect working capital, improves service quality, and enables data-led decisions across the business.
Final thoughts
Flooring distribution is changing fast, and AI is helping the industry adapt. For flooring merchants ready to move from guesswork to intelligence, now is the time to act. Those who adopt practical AI early won’t just keep pace. They’ll lead.
www.klipboard.com