The Bold Moves of Kohler

Prominently positioned in the heart of the prime King Street shopping district in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, is a well-known brand — Kohler.

But this showroom is different. It’s the brand’s fourth company-owned and operated Kohler Signature Store, and it marks the first store of its kind on the East Coast. The three other stores are in the Los Angeles and Houston markets.

The store opened in January and managers are closely watching what types of shoppers are coming in. Most are shoppers curious about the showroom, while a few contractors and interior designers have also stopped by to explore what could help with their customers, store-manager Kristen Murphy said.

The store hasn’t been open long enough to identify sales trends or patterns, but one sales representative sold equipment for a kitchen, and a bathroom and a powder room.

“We’re already seeing kind of the larger sales, which is funny because I thought at first, maybe it would be like a faucet here or something there, but people have been waiting for us to open,” Murphy said.

The Charleston market is growing, and many homes are being renovated as homes change hands or are undergoing design updates. The store offers a one-stop place to see Kohler’s lines to a degree that distributor showrooms might not be able to show.

Kohler has a retail presence with 51 stand-alone showrooms operated by other companies or distributors, while hundreds of additional businesses dedicate space to special Kohler displays within their showrooms.

Welcome addition to downtown shopping district

The Kohler showroom store is a welcome addition to a section of King Street that used to be home to several design-related business, such as interior designers and architects. Over time, restaurants and other businesses moved in the section, but Kohler brings a new type of draw to the shopping district, said Amy Barrett, executive director of the Charleston Downtown Alliance/King Street Business Improvement District.

“They’re on a very prominent corner, in a historic building that has been vacant recently. They did such a nice job, and given that it’s a showroom it brings in people thinking about renovations and home improvements,” she said.

There are about 500 businesses in the roughly 2-mile section of King Street. The Kohler store is in the Bluestein building, which was a clothing store for men until it moved a decade ago. There are other home-related stores nearby, including Michael Mitchell, an interior design firm with a showroom, and West Elm, a higher-end national furniture retailer.

“As a retail-district manager, I’m conscious about the mix of the residents and visitors. The Kohler store fits a nice niche for us,” Barrett said.

Kohler says its partners will benefit from branding

The general strategy is to use the showrooms to boost the Kohler brand directly among consumers, benefitting any business offering the Kohler line, while offering a directto-customer channel where shoppers could order any of Kohler’s products, or go to a distributor like Ferguson — which is Kohler’s biggest sales partner — and buy Kohle along with other fixtures they want, said sales manager Kerrie Caldwell-Troutman.

“It’s not a competition so much with our distributors or with Ferguson. One of the big reasons we’re here is to promote brand awareness. A lot of those people will go to Ferguson because maybe they don’t want to just buy Kohler,” she said. “They want to buy other brands as well and they can do all of that through build.com with Ferguson.”

The company is aware that it’s store decisions are watched by other businesses in the trades, Cindy Jorgensen, Kohler’s director of sales and store operations.

“Kohler is very much in tune with our distributor partner and committed to building and maintaining strong relationships to help ensure that we can achieve our shared goals. We work together to evaluate market needs and provide ongoing support to move forward together in a dynamic, fast-paced marketplace, including serving as an innovation and design leader in the communities where we operate,” said Cindy Jorgensen, Kohler’s director of sales and store operations.

Charleston was a long-desired location

The downtown location fulfills a longstanding interest in the South Carolina city because of its profile.

“Charleston is a vibrant city that drives design, art, culture, and culinary innovation. We knew we wanted to be part of the Charleston community for a long time, and when we saw the Bluestein Building, we found our home,” Jorgensen said.

Like Caldwell-Troutman, Jorgensen said the companyowned store is not intended to be a competitor with other distributors carrying the Kohler line.

“Kohler believes in our partners, and we lead our expansion program with our distributors owning and operating the vast majority of our stores,” Jorgensen said.

Sale fulfillment is handled by a local distributor, but the Kohler store offers a longer period of engagement with customers to let them know when shipments will arrive. The store does not offer its own installment services, but that could be added in the future.

After-sale services would also be offered to maintain ongoing relationships with customers so they’re more likely to return to Kohler for future upgrades and replacements.

The showroom covers roughly 3,400-square-foot, and features a fully functional shower so customers can see and feel fixtures and see how they work. It also holds an event space with a kitchen area to boost community engagement. Cooking classes, for example, can be hosted in the store.

A conference room is also set up with a library on Kohler and a meeting space for designers and contractors.

“It’s just at different level of customer experience,” Murphy said.