The Future of Retail: How Smart Flooring is Transforming Stores
In the fast-evolving retail landscape, staying ahead of the competition requires innovative solutions that enhance customer experience, optimize operations, and drive sales. One of the most exciting advancements in retail technology is smart flooring—a powerful tool that provides real-time insights into foot traffic, customer behavior, and store performance.
At Scanalytics, we specialize in smart flooring solutions and have successfully implemented them in major retail brands like Kohl’s, Trek Bicycle, and US Cellular. Our technology helps retailers understand how customers move through their stores, enabling them to make data-driven decisions that enhance engagement and increase revenue.
Recently, Scanalytics joined forces with our flooring leader Tarkett at the SPECS 2025 conference in Texas. This premier event brought together top retailers and solution providers to discuss critical trends shaping the retail industry. From AI-driven automation to sustainability and ecosystem collaboration, the event reinforced the importance of integrating smart technologies into retail environments.
Let’s explore how smart flooring is revolutionizing retail and aligning with the key themes of SPECS 2025.
What is Smart Flooring?
Smart flooring utilizes sensor-based technology embedded in floor surfaces to track movement patterns, measure foot traffic, and analyze customer engagement. Unlike traditional tracking methods (like video surveillance or heat maps), smart flooring provides precise, anonymous data on how shoppers navigate stores, interact with products, and respond to store layouts.
At Scanalytics, our floor sensor technology has helped major retailers optimize their spaces, reduce operational inefficiencies, and improve customer experiences.
SPECS 2025 was held in one of America’s Shopping Meccas: Dallas, TX
How Smart Flooring Aligns with Key Themes of SPECS 2025
1. Digitization and Technology: AI-Powered Store Optimization
At SPECS 2025, the retail industry emphasized the importance of digital tools to enhance store operations, prevent losses, and automate tasks. Smart flooring is at the forefront of this movement.
✅ AI-Powered Insights – By integrating AI with smart flooring, retailers can predict customer behavior, optimize store layouts, and personalize promotions.
✅ Loss Prevention – Detecting unusual foot traffic patterns can help identify potential theft risks, allowing for better security management.
✅ Automated Maintenance – Smart flooring can notify store managers when certain areas experience heavy foot traffic, signaling the need for cleaning or maintenance.
2. Sustainability: Smart Flooring for Energy Efficiency
Sustainability was a key focus at SPECS 2025, with an emphasis on eco-friendly practices. Smart flooring contributes to sustainability in multiple ways:
🌍 Reducing energy consumption – Smart flooring data can integrate with HVAC and lighting systems, ensuring energy is only used when needed.
🌱 Minimizing material waste – By analyzing store traffic, retailers can place durable flooring materials in high-traffic areas, extending the life of their store interiors.
📊 Data-driven sustainability efforts – Retailers can track customer flow to optimize product placement and reduce waste in supply chain management.
3. Ecosystem Collaboration: Partnering with Industry Leaders
Retailers at SPECS 2025 emphasized the importance of collaborations and partnerships to drive innovation. Scanalytics, alongside Tarkett, showcased how smart flooring technology enhances retail spaces by integrating seamlessly with store designs and flooring solutions.
By working together, flooring leaders and technology providers can create intelligent retail spaces that improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, and sales performance.
4. Store Development & Retail Trends: The Future of Smart Stores
One of the biggest takeaways from SPECS 2025 was the rise of new retail store formats and concepts. With the growing popularity of experiential retail and omnichannel shopping, smart flooring plays a critical role in shaping the stores of the future.
🔹 Data-Driven Store Design – Retailers can use foot traffic insights to determine which store layouts drive the most engagement.
🔹 Interactive Shopping Experiences – Smart flooring can trigger personalized digital displays based on where a customer walks, creating a more engaging experience.
🔹 Hybrid Retail Models – Smart flooring helps retailers adapt to BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store) trends by optimizing store layouts for fast and efficient order fulfillment.
5. Skilled Labor & Workforce Development: AI-Driven Efficiency
With the retail labor shortage being a pressing issue, smart flooring provides a technology-driven solution to reduce reliance on manual processes.
🛠️ Automated Employee Scheduling – Smart flooring detects peak shopping hours, allowing managers to adjust staff schedules accordingly.
👣 Training and Productivity Tracking – Analyzing employee movement patterns helps retailers improve training and productivity by identifying inefficiencies.
🚀 Enhancing Workforce Capabilities – AI-driven smart flooring systems allow employees to focus on customer service rather than repetitive tasks like inventory tracking.
6. Facilities Management & Maintenance: AI-Enhanced Operations
Retailers at SPECS 2025 explored how AI can improve maintenance operations. Smart flooring contributes to this by:
📢 Proactive Maintenance Alerts – Sensors detect wear and tear on high-traffic areas, notifying facilities teams before issues arise.
🔍 Space Utilization Analysis – Understanding which areas receive the most traffic helps retailers optimize store layouts and product placement.
⏳ Reducing Downtime – AI-driven predictive analytics help retailers plan maintenance schedules that minimize disruptions to store operations.
7. Permitting Process & New HVACR Refrigerant Requirements
Retail construction and store updates often face delays due to slow permitting processes. At SPECS 2025, discussions focused on accelerating permitting for store developments.
💡 Smart flooring technology can streamline permitting by providing real-time occupancy and space usage data, helping store planners make data-backed decisions that meet compliance requirements faster.
Additionally, new HVACR refrigerant regulations require retailers to upgrade their cooling systems. Smart flooring can assist by:
🌡️ Optimizing HVAC Efficiency – Smart flooring integrates with HVAC systems to adjust temperature based on real-time foot traffic data.
📉 Reducing Energy Waste – AI-driven insights from smart flooring ensure that heating and cooling are only used when needed, reducing overall energy costs.
Why Leading Retailers Choose Scanalytics for Smart Flooring
Scanalytics has successfully implemented smart flooring solutions for Kohl’s, Trek Bicycle, and US Cellular, helping them:
✅ Increase customer engagement by analyzing foot traffic trends.
✅ Optimize store layouts for better sales performance.
✅ Enhance loss prevention efforts using AI-powered movement tracking.
✅ Improve operational efficiency with automated maintenance alerts.
Our collaboration with Tarkett at SPECS 2025 reinforced the role of smart flooring in shaping the future of retail. By combining data-driven insights with intelligent store design, we are helping retailers create smarter, more efficient, and more engaging shopping experiences.
Conclusion: The Future of Retail Starts from the Ground Up
Even those of us who “hate shopping” and “try to never buy anything new,” still, at one point, will be shopping for a gift, groceries, automotive or new baby supplies and appreciate an intuitive, interesting experience. As retail continues to evolve to serve all customers, no matter their “shopping preferences,” smart flooring is becoming an essential technology for store optimization. By integrating AI, sustainability, and automation, retailers can enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and future-proof their businesses.
Scanalytics is proud to be at the forefront of this transformation, working with industry leaders like Tarkett to deliver innovative flooring solutions for the modern retailer.
If you’re ready to take your store to the next level, contact Scanalytics today to explore how smart flooring can revolutionize your retail space.
🚀 Let’s build the future of retail—one step at a time.
