After 14 years with the Virginia-based e-commerce retailer, Martin is handing over the merchandising functions in his job description to newly appointed director of merchandising Adrienne Wooddell, who has covered markets with the senior management team at Rugs Direct for over a decade (read full story).

In an exclusive Q&A interview, RugNews.com talked with Martin about his future plans, the state of the rug industry and what he refers to as the "explosion of e-commerce" as well as its present and future impact on area rug retailing.

Will this be your last trip to the Atlanta Rug Market?

BM: I'm going to work full time until the trade show, and then work part time as long as we're here in Virginia. We're moving to Bluffton, South Carolina, about 15 minutes from Hilton Head, and doing the whole retirement thing. We don't know if we're going to buy land to build a house or buy one. The nice thing is that for the first time, nothing has to be done fast. It's a whole new point of life for me. It will take time to learn how to retire, but I'm willing to try.  

When you eventually retire, what would you like to do? 

BM: I have no clue -- who knows what I'll do? I really don't have any hobbies, so that's what I am going to have to learn how to do - is find hobbies. We're going to a retirement area where they have about 140 clubs and three golf courses, paddle tennis, tennis and different workout areas. I'm looking forward to finding something to do for my retirement time. 

How did you first get into the rug business?

BM: I got into the area rug business by pure chance.  I was in the rep business -- an independent rep with three full-time reps working for me and an office. My biggest account was Hechinger [the former home improvement chain]. One day, I got a phone call from Oriental Weavers of America because they wanted to sell to home centers, and the buyer at Hechinger told them to call me. After a round of interviews, they hired me. I got into the rug business selling area rugs to Hechinger. 

When Hechinger collapsed, rugs were just beginning to take off. I thought I could make a living selling area rugs, so I went and got a couple more lines.

Were you with Rugs Direct from the beginning?

BM: I think they had been in business for about four years when I came on board. They were actually one of my customers. As an independent rep, I had Oriental Weavers of America, Radici, CMI and a couple of other lines. I came in to meet them one day to sell them when the Internet was in its infancy. While meeting with Dave Craig who had started the company, and listening to him tell me what they did with the internet, I remember thinking, "What's the internet?" All I knew was that I was a salesman in Virginia, and I was going to sell Rugs Direct and get credit for sales all across the country - and commission on those sales. I said, "Just tell me what to do. I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm in."

I walked out the door, called my factories, and had discs sent in of product - that's how we did it then. A couple years later, they were looking for someone from the area rug business inside to help them grow -- to be in charge of their store, the warehouse, catalogs, and merchandising. I knew most of it, but had no catalog background. I learned, and I ended up doing all the other stuff for them. November, 2003 was my hire date. 

What has been the biggest change in the industry since you've been in the business? 

BM: From what we were selling back then to what we're selling now is night and day. When I got into the business, selling six color polypropylene rugs was cutting edge. How nice rugs are today, how the prices have come down -- we have much better rugs now at much better prices. The sophistication of where rugs are today to where they were 15 years ago is ridiculous.

Another thing is the explosion of vendors that sell rugs. Much of what was coming out of Europe back in those days has transferred to either China, India, or Turkey. Turkey wasn't even in it when I started in the business; China was barely in it.

What has e-commerce done to the rug business?

BM: Online versus brick and mortar has exploded. When I was a rep 18, 19 years ago, and you sold a 20-arm rack to a store, it was huge. They were going to have 40 rugs. That was big time. People just laugh at 40 rugs now, and that's why so many brick and mortar stores are getting out of rugs. They don't have the space to show them. If you don't have the breadth of rugs, your customers go online. That's what online did. It's all images. You're not buying stock or inventory. You're not putting the dollars into it. We're putting the dollars into advertising it on Google or wherever, rather than the actual physical stock. That's really the biggest difference.  And the quality of product has gotten so much better.

Do you have advice for rug suppliers? What do you look for in a vendor? 

BM: The two biggest changes and challenges today are quick delivery and the photography -- the images they provide. It's become so sophisticated that you have to have the photography for the average consumer sitting in Paducah, Kentucky, to make a decision at 8:00 at night. You need to show what that rug looks like to make the sale. It was computer CADs when we first got into this. Those days are gone. For Rugs Direct specifically, we look for unique products that are different from what everybody has already. We're trying to look for new, different, and a little more sophistication. We're never looking to be that $49 rug seller. That's not who we are. We're also not looking for every vendor that's out there to be on our site.

What about pricing - is it a race to the bottom?

BM: The problem is that this whole industry is coming down to a few [e-commerce] giants that are pushing rugs at $50, $60, $70 - and thousands and thousands of them. That's not good for our industry. When people get used to an $89 rug or a $99 rug, all of a sudden a $299 rug is expensive.

Do you have any advice for retailers? 

BM: I think brick and mortar fears online, but they don't have to. If you use online as your advertising tool and a customer comes in asking about a rug they saw somewhere online, you've got that customer right there, so sell them. It didn't cost you anything to get that customer into your store, so match the online price, take that customer - and hopefully it will be a loyal customer. Don't worry that you didn't make as much money on that sale. Acquire that customer aggressively.

How can brick and mortar stores succeed online? 

BM: You can create a website, but you cannot sell without a lot of visibility. That's the whole key to this. If you're on the 20th page and you have a website, it's useless because consumers are only going to look at the first page. You've got to spend a lot of money to be seen by the consumer on a Google or some other search engine. That's where the problem is, getting visibility is so tough today. It's pay per click and that can be expensive.

When you look back at rug retailing 10 to 15 years from now, what do you hope to see? 

BM: To be cynical, I want someone in addition to Amazon, Overstock, and Wayfair. I certainly think that the rug business has a great future because so much of the flooring has gone to wood and tile. Rugs are natural. I just worry about the shrinking distribution in retail of area rugs.

Do you think the rug business more fashion driven now? 

BM: Yeah. There's much better fashion at much lower retail prices. 

Do you think hand-knotted rugs can be sold online?

BM: Yes. If you go back 10 or 12 years ago, they said you can't sell area rugs online because people wouldn't be able to touch them. They said you can't sell cars online because people want to drive them, or you can't sell clothes online because people want to try them on. That's all gone.

As people get more and more used to the internet, and descriptions and images get better, there's no reason you can't sell a $10,000 rug online if everything is there, other than touching it. In most cases it's free freight to you, you take a look at it, you send it back if you don't like it. People are selling everything else online. Why can't you sell hand-knotted rugs? Amazon has come out with two very large lines of private label furniture. They're going after the Wayfairs. Wayfair does it [online furniture] well.  Home Dec did it great. They were the first e-tailer that that showed you could sell furniture online. Today, you can sell anything online as long as you can present it in a way that the consumer feels comfortable purchasing it.