Combating Showrooming Viewpoints: An NCR White Paper

 

It’s a familiar scene. A consumer enters your store and is directed by your associate to the latest and greatest product. The shopper paces the aisle looking at the options: holding the product, reading the specs and physically experiencing the product’s look and feel. But what happens next stops the sale in its tracks. The consumer pulls out his mobile phone to scan the product’s bar code to browse online to compare prices. He determines he can get the same item from an online marketplace for a few dollars less, with no tax and free shipping. With one click the consumer completes the purchase and strolls away—not a penny spent at your store.

The industry has defined this scenario as “Showrooming,” where a consumer visits a brick-and-mortar store to research a product but then purchases it elsewhere. The driving factor is typically price, as information-empowered consumers find better deals by phone, online or at a competitor’s physical store. If you’re a retailer, Showrooming may already be impacting your revenue, but how concerned should you really be?


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