Why Retailers Need to Adapt to the “Showrooming” Customer

How Customer Search and Buy in Stores

For the second day in a row, there is a terrific story about the retail industry. The focus of this one, from CRM Magazine, is how customers are changing how they search for products prior to making a choice and how this effects where they buy. In particular, it discusses how, in many ways, the in-store experience is inferior to online shopping.

For instance, when online, shoppers may obtain more details on product specifications, they can also see a product as it may appear in different colors, and they can read customer reviews. The result is that, for a growing number of customers, retail stores now serve as “showrooms” where customers go to experience products but end up purchasing online from another retailer.

The story, which includes stats from research studies, argues that store-based retailing needs to adapt better to customers’ changing shopping habits by developing compelling reasons for customers to visit a store and by offering price matching to counter customers’ showrooming tendencies.

Image by Danny Choo