Home > Media > News > Industry News > Spot the Next Super Trend in Flooring at DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOORAmid the accelerating iteration of the flooring industry, whoever can accurately capture the next super trend will seize the initiative in the market. As the trend barometer of the Asia-Pacific flooring industry, DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR reveals the core future development directions of the industry at each exhibition. From May 27 to 29, 2026, this flagship event gathering over 1,500 global brands and 83,850 professional visitors sends a clear signal once again — four trends, namely deepened environmental protection, intelligent integration, scenario segmentation and integrated design, are jointly forming the next super trend in the flooring industry, paving a fast track for growth for practitioners such as general distributors, home furnishing mall purchasers and brand manufacturers.
With the advancement of the "dual carbon" goals and the awakening of consumers' environmental awareness, environmental protection in the flooring industry has evolved from a "bonus point" to a "must-have", and PVC-FREE eco-friendly flooring is emerging as the core of this trend, completely reshaping the industry pattern.
Policies such as the plastic ban and green building standards are forcing the industry to upgrade, and consumers' demand for formaldehyde-free and low-VOC products is rising steadily. Boasting core advantages of "zero plastic, environmental protection and recyclability", the market scale of PVC-FREE flooring has achieved a compound annual growth rate of over 30%. At the DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR Exhibition, leading brands such as KENTIER, Shengxiang and YONGYU focus on displaying Non-PVC resilient flooring made of PP, PET, MGO and other materials, covering all scenarios from household to commercial use, and has become one of the most watched categories at the exhibition.
PVC-FREE flooring has broken away from the early dilemma of "performance compromise", surpassing traditional PVC flooring in core indicators such as wear resistance, water resistance and foot feel, and its categories have extended to a full range of floor, wall panel and ceiling materials. The Flooring Innovation Summit held concurrently with the exhibition sets up a special environmental protection session to interpret the technical standards and market opportunities of PVC-FREE, helping practitioners avoid homogeneous competition and achieve high gross profit through environmental premium.
Flooring is no longer a simple paving material, but a core node of the whole-house smart ecosystem. Smart flooring, centered on "temperature control, sensing and health monitoring", is becoming the next profit growth point.
At the DOMOTEX Exhibition, the innovative achievements of smart flooring are fully realized: temperature-controlled flooring links with the whole-house smart system to achieve zonal temperature control and remote operation, suitable for high-end residential and health care scenarios; sensing flooring integrates pressure sensing technology to monitor the falls of the elderly and the activities of children, becoming a necessity for smart homes and medical care spaces; health smart flooring is equipped with antibacterial modules and environmental monitoring sensors to feed back formaldehyde, temperature and humidity data in real time, meeting the demand for healthy living environments.
International top brands such as Armstrong and Gerflor, together with domestic emerging enterprises, are laying out the smart flooring track. The exhibition specially sets up a Smart Flooring Zone to display the whole-chain achievements from technological R&D to scenario implementation. Meanwhile, the concurrent forum of cadex Architecture Era focuses on "Integration of Smart Materials and Space", promoting the improvement of industry standards, enabling smart flooring to move from high-end customization to large-scale popularization, and providing practitioners with a broad market space.
The flooring industry is transforming from "general-purpose" to "scenario-specific", and the demand for vertical track products such as outdoor flooring, health care flooring and sports flooring is surging, becoming an important part of the super trend.
With the development of the outdoor economy, health care industry and national sports, the demand for scenario-specific flooring continues to grow: outdoor flooring needs to have the characteristics of weather resistance, skid resistance and environmental protection, and products such as wood plastic and ecological stone at the DOMOTEX Exhibition cover scenarios such as cultural tourism camps and municipal walkways; health care flooring focuses on skid resistance, sound insulation and antibacterial properties, becoming a standard configuration for hospitals and nursing homes; sports flooring optimizes shock absorption and rebound performance for different sports types, suitable for professional venues and home fitness spaces.
DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR builds exclusive exhibition zones for segmented tracks, gathering high-quality brands focusing on outdoor, health care and sports flooring. The precise connection between 17,923 international buyers and domestic engineering purchasers enables high-quality products in segmented tracks to quickly enter the global market, opening up a new profit blue ocean for practitioners.
Six-sided space integration has become the mainstream trend in decoration. Integrated flooring for floor, wall and ceiling, with the advantages of unified style and convenient installation, completely breaks the profit ceiling of single flooring products and becomes a key grasp of the super trend.
At the DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR Exhibition, brands such as Sofia and SHUXIANGMENDI display integrated solutions for floor, wall and ceiling. Matching products such as floors, wall panels and skirting lines with the same color system and texture allow consumers to avoid scattered purchasing, and the single customer transaction amount is several times that of a single flooring product. This model of "selling space solutions" not only increases profit margins, but also simplifies the procurement and sales processes, becoming the core competitiveness of home furnishing malls and distributors.
The exhibition links with the China Carpet Original Design Exhibition and the cadex Material, Research & Design Zone, inviting renowned designers to interpret the integrated design trend and promoting the in-depth integration of flooring with architecture and interior design. At the same time, integrated flooring is suitable for multiple channels such as hardcover houses, commercial real estate and high-end home decoration. The Buyer Club of DOMOTEX accurately matches engineering collective procurement orders and retail channel resources for practitioners, accelerating the implementation of this trend.
The next super trend in the flooring industry does not exist in isolation, but is a multi-dimensional integration of environmental protection, intelligence, scenario segmentation and integrated design, and DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR is precisely the barometer and connector of this trend.With a super scale of 210,000 square meters, the exhibition gathers cutting-edge products from over 1,500 high-quality global brands, allowing practitioners to inspect the innovative achievements of the four super trends in one stop; professional visitors from 117 countries and more than 300 one-on-one business matching sessions realize precise resource connection; concurrent events such as the Flooring Innovation Summit and design forums decode the technical logic and market demand behind the trends, helping practitioners avoid blind follow-up and carry out precise layout.For general distributors, home furnishing mall purchasers and brand manufacturers, DOMOTEX is more than an exhibition, but a decision-making platform to grasp the super trend in the flooring industry — here, practitioners can not only witness the trend with their own eyes, but also connect with high-quality resources, and even sign contracts and stock up in advance to seize the first-mover advantage when the trend breaks out and achieve multiple growth in profits.
The super trend in the flooring industry is essentially the resonance of technological innovation and consumer demand. Environmental protection addresses the "bottom line of health", intelligent integration enhances the "living experience", scenario segmentation meets the "precise demand", and integrated design restructures the "space value". The four trends jointly drive the industry into a new stage of high-quality development.
From May 27 to 29, 2026, DOMOTEX Shanghai will once again gather global innovative forces in the flooring industry and present a complete panorama of the super trend. For far-sighted flooring practitioners, this exhibition is an unmissable "trend feast". Only by accurately grasping and resolutely laying out the trend can they take the lead in industry transformation and seize the next golden growth cycle.
Q: What are the four core trends of the flooring super trend reflected at DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR?
A: The four super trends are deepened environmental protection (PVC-FREE as the mainstream), in-depth intelligent integration (temperature control, sensing, health monitoring), scenario segmentation (outdoor, health care, sports flooring), and integrated design (floor-wall-ceiling supporting).
Q: What are the core driving factors for PVC-FREE eco-friendly flooring to become a super trend?
A: The core drivers come from both policy and market levels: policies such as the plastic ban and green building standards force the industry to upgrade, consumers' demand for formaldehyde-free and low-VOC products is rising steadily, and at the same time, PVC-FREE flooring technology is mature and its performance has surpassed traditional PVC flooring.
Q: How does DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR help practitioners connect with resources of the smart flooring trend?
A: The exhibition specially sets up a Smart Flooring Zone to gather smart products of international top brands and emerging enterprises; holds the cadex Smart Materials Forum concurrently to interpret the trend; and provides personalized business matching through the Buyer Club (VIP Buyer Club) to connect smart flooring brands with purchasers and engineering parties.
Q: Under the trend of scenario segmentation, which vertical tracks have the greatest market potential?
A: Three vertical tracks see a surge in demand and have the most prominent market potential: outdoor flooring (suitable for cultural tourism and municipal scenarios), health care flooring (a necessity for hospitals and nursing homes), and sports flooring (professional venues and home fitness). They are also the key display sections of the DOMOTEX Exhibition.
Q: How does the integrated design of floor, wall and ceiling help distributors increase profits?
A: Integrated design realizes "selling space solutions" rather than "selling single products" through supporting products of floor, wall and ceiling with the same color system and texture, and the single customer transaction amount is several times that of a single flooring product; at the same time, it simplifies the procurement and sales processes, reduces operational costs and increases profit margins.
Q: What help do international buyer resources bring to domestic practitioners in grasping the flooring trend?
A: 17,923 international buyers bring global market demand signals, helping domestic practitioners understand overseas preferences for eco-friendly, smart and integrated flooring, adjust product structure to expand overseas orders, and introduce international cutting-edge products to enrich domestic sales categories.
Q: What value related to the industry trends can the Flooring Innovation Summit of DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR provide for practitioners?
A: The summit invites industry leaders and technical experts to interpret the technical standards, market scale and profit models of the four super trends; shares the trend layout cases of leading brands, helping practitioners avoid blind follow-up and formulate precise operational strategies.
Q: For home furnishing mall purchasers, how to lay out the integrated design trend at the exhibition?
A: They can visit the exclusive exhibition zone for floor-wall-ceiling integrated design to inspect supporting products of brands such as Sofia and SHUXIANGMENDI; participate in concurrent design activities to grasp style trends; and connect with high-quality integrated flooring brands through the Buyer Club (VIP Buyer Club) to strive for exclusive supply policies and marketing support.
Q: Under the super trend, how can flooring brand manufacturers enhance their competitiveness with the help of the DOMOTEX Exhibition?
A: They can launch trend products such as eco-friendly, smart and integrated flooring at the exhibition to attract purchasers' attention; participate in industry summits to voice their opinions and enhance brand awareness; and connect with global distributors and engineering collective procurement orders through business matching to quickly expand sales channels in the trend track.
May 27-29, 2026
National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai)
