Bring your imagination to life
A shoppers experience in any retail environment is about more than just the products you can buy. Creating the perfect environment in which customers feel relaxed and comfortable is key.
As a global player in flooring we understand the challenges of every sector. Nobody in retail wants to lose any store opening hours, meaning installation must be fast, often overnight. Ever changing concepts require rapid adaptation and even bespoke solutions. We can help you.
We enable you to to simplify your order process and improve efficiencies.
We have a superb track record in managing complex global supply contracts for a worldwide client base, using dedicated global and local resources.
We offer the largest and most comprehensive floor coverings range, all produced in our 12 European manufacturing sites.
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Customers buy more in new shops
Products to use in Retail
Because everyone knows 'time is money', Forbo have created Fast Flooring - a collection of genuine loose lay floor coverings ideal for entrance and interior flooring ranges, which come in sheet, tile and plank format for maximum flexibility. Using these truly adhesive free products, as opposed to traditional 'stick down' solutions, means total installation time can be reduced by more than half.
Quick
Minimal downtime and disruption - a Fast Flooring installation can save over 50% of downtime where a new sub-floor is not needed.
Easy
Avoids the usual adhesive issues like lingering odours and drying times.
Economical
Fast Flooring installations can reduce downtime by over 50% where a new sub-floor isn't needed, saving you significant money.
Discover our Fast Flooring collection
Can't find exactly you're looking for despite our superb product range? Don't worry, we have more! Our Custom flooring options mean you can design your own unique digitally printed floor in Flotex, Eternal project vinyl and Coral entrance flooring as well as the refined Aquajet cutting technique for Marmoleum flooring.
Discover the possibilities
Looking for the aesthetics of natural stone or wood floors with all the advantages of strong, comfortable vinyl? Then explore our Allura LVT collection.
• Authentic appearance
• In-house design
• Variety of sizes
• Various traffic levels
• Acoustic performance; warmth and comfort
• Variety of installation types: loose lay, glued down or click for easy installation
• Produced in Europe
Discover our Allura LVT collection
It's a natural winner. Our Marmoleum linoleum floor coverings are natural floors, blending sustainability with durability, high quality and innovative design. Made from natural raw materials, linoleum flooring is the most sustainable flooring choice.
• Natural product
• Climate Positive production
• Eco labels
• Pure look
• Mimic nature
• Combine with Furniture linoleum
• Various formats (planks, tiles, rolls, sheet)
Discover our Marmoleum collection
Flotex is a unique textile floor covering that combines the durability and hard wearing characteristics of a resilient floor with the warmth, quality and comfort of a carpet. A strong and hygienic floor, the impervious backing of Flotex makes it suitable for wet cleaning.
• Sound absorption; warmth and comfort
• Hygienic - Allergy free
• Excellent slip resistance
• In-house design
• Digital printing with custom design
• Available in sheet, plank and tile format
• Can be combined with Allura Flex
• Quick and easy: loose lay
Discover our Flotex collection
Carpet tiles are renowned for aesthetic styling and outstanding performance in highly demanding heavy traffic environments.
• Sound absorption
• Slip resistance
• Modularity
• Quick, easy: loose lay installation
• Range from simple to luxury and rich textures
• Combine with Allura Flex
Discover our Tessera collection
Effective entrance flooring is essential for shops. Well-designed entrance flooring systems prevent dirt and moisture being trailed in, thereby prolonging the life of interior flooring and reducing maintenance and cleaning costs as well as the potential for slip injuries. With both rigid (Nuway) and textile (Coral) Entrance Systems in the Forbo portfolio, we offer an entrance solution for every situation.
• Prevent up to 95% of walked in dirt and moisture
• Maintain floor appearance
• Reduce maintenance costs
• Slip resistant surface
• Textile Coral: sheet, tiles, click, logo
• Rigid Nuway mats for upper range high intensity foot traffic
Discover our Coral collection
Discover our Nuway collection
Vinyl floors are hugely popular due to their durability, versatility and low maintenance. Homogeneous vinyl comprises 1 single layer that delivers vibrancy and depth of colour. It is remarkably durable and stain resistant, making it a great flooring choice for high traffic areas.
• Durable
• Fresh colour palette
• Available in sheet format
• Produced in Europe
Discover our Sphera homogeneous vinyl collection
Forbo care about you and the environment
• We've gained various labels and certification for our products and production facilities.
• All our manufacturing sites are ISO certified. Raw materials are used efficiently and waste is recycled wherever possible.
• We're committed to social responsibility and the Forbo sites are certified to SA8000.
Creating better environments
It's all about creating the ultimate shopping experience. As well as understanding changing shopping behaviour, today's retailer needs to maximise every tool at their disposal to entice people into the store. Flooring is one of the most important of these tools, helping you stand out ... or stay as modest as possible to let your products do the talking!
The function of shops has changed as more and more customers do their homework online
Experts demonstrated the influence of daylight on retail performance, with an experiment showing a 40% increase in sales after increasing the amount of daylighting through roof lights. Important factors are:
• Light quantity
• Light quality
• Daylight
• Glare
Because floors can significantly influence lighting performance in store, choosing the right floor is vital!.
Poor interior layout of retail shops and stores can cause disorientation, overcrowding and stress. This will inevitably have a negative impact on a retailer’s performance.
Walkway design, differentiation of zones and effective signage can improve the shopper’s ability to navigate or orient themselves in store.
Employing different flooring types for walkways, payment areas, display areas and different product zones can make store navigation much easier for your shopper.
The look and feel of a retail shop or store influences your ability not only to attract customers, but also to retain them in your retail environment.
Design strategies must balance both of these objectives - customer attraction and customer retention.
Look and feel can be evaluated with two key design considerations:
• Aesthetics - including colour, shapes, texture and artwork in the retail environment. Colour can produce autonomic biological reactions, emotional responses and capture attention.
• Ergonomy
The floor covering has a significant influence on colour perception in a shop.
Noise pollution causes a wide range of physical and behavioural symptoms that may negatively impact your profits by driving shoppers away and lowering the wellbeing of your staff.
Metrics and design considerations used to assess acoustic conditions include:
• Background noise
• Privacy & speech interference
Designers create improved acoustic conditions for shops and stores by using background noises to mask unwanted distraction and reducing noise levels to minimise stress.
Careful selection of your flooring will help create the right level of acoustic for your retail space.
Biophilia: the innate and genetically determined affinity of humans with the natural world.
Exposure to the natural world (through any of the five senses) has a positive effect on our wellbeing by reducing stress levels.
Studies of retail environments have shown that biophilic design has a positive impact on dwell time and price acceptance. Important factors include:
• Direct experience of natural spaces
• Views
• Interior design
• Place-based design
Numerous retail experiments have demonstrated that retail environments with lower air quality tend to have higher customer and staff dissatisfaction. This in turn leads to less time spent in the retail environment and fewer returning customers. Important factors are:
• Pollutant concentration
• CO2 concentration
• Odour
• Humidity
The type of floor you install will influence the pollutant concentration.
When refurbishing your store you don't want to close during business hours. Forbo products let you install overnight and open your doors next day as normal. Talk to us to learn how to do this as smoothly as possible.
Shops renovation
• Possibility to install on top of existing floor
• Limited subfloor preparation
• Possibility to renovate overnight
• Loose lay system
• Click system
Fact: 'Floor installation speed is crucial for retailer'
Technical people need to talk to technical people. They understand each other and know how to help best in certain situations. We have dedicated technical teams on hand in each market to assist with questions about:
• Evaluating subfloor conditions
• Choosing the most efficient installation method
• Help to start a renovation shop
• Questions on installation and/or maintenance
We have a range of tools and services to help you create your floor and decide what would fit best where. Our FloorVisualizer helps you place any of our floors in a retail environment and even to see how combining them would work.
Start playing now in our FloorVisualizer
Our design service can go even further by helping you design your floor. Our team of designers is waiting - get in touch and let us know your requirements. Send them pictures of the current setup or your desired solution and they'll deliver floorplans and product proposals.
Contact our design team
Many, many shops worldwide use Forbo floors. Visit our reference section for inspiration from existing Forbo flooring solutions in retail spaces. Our reference overview helps you see products in use and to review how they are applied.
Our worldwide references