Palmer Retail Solutions Blog

Tips to Turn In-Store Showrooming Back Into In-Store Buying

Posted by Kathy Heil on Dec 11, 2014 7:30:54 AM

How to Keep Showrooming from Cutting into Holiday Sales

For some customers, the holiday shopping season is really the holiday showrooming season – a chance to scout out Retail Showroomingmerchandise in person, before buying it online. This increasingly popular activity is obviously frustrating for brick-and-mortar stores, because it cuts into the bottom line. Fortunately, there are several ways to not only combat this behavior, but turn it in your favor. Here are some effective ways to turn in-store showrooming back into in-store buying.

Remember, your store offers the kind of personal experience that customers can’t find online. Put that to work in your favor, and you’ll eliminate your customer’s reasons for leaving without buying.

Here’s how to differentiate their in-store experience:

  • Attentive service:

    You have real, live salespeople who can give shoppers great advice to select exactly the right gift. Make sure you have enough staff on the floor and at cash registers to ensure superior one-on-one service and minimize lines. Demonstrate to customers that you can give them better service in person and they can waltz out the door with gifts in hand. Instant gratification is a significant motivator.

  • Free gift wrapping:

    It’s an extra value busy shoppers really appreciate. So is packaging items into gift baskets or other ready-made collections.

  • In-store pickup and returns:

    If you’re a multi-channel retailer, allowing shoppers to buy online and pick their items up in store is a double win. They don’t have to wonder if their purchases will arrive in time, and you have an opportunity to sell them a few more items when they come in. The same applies to returns.

Bring the online experience into the store

Did you know that 67% of people in a recent survey said they use their smartphones to price-check items while in a store? Almost that many will leave if they find a lower price elsewhere – either online or at a competitor’s store. Big retailers can combat that with price-matching guarantees, but small stores can use technology in other ways to trump a price difference with other benefits such as loyalty rewards and better service.

Create your own mobile website or app that shoppers can use to learn everything they might learn online about your products. If you do this, promote it heavily with in-store promotions so customers know about it. Reward shoppers who download and use your app or mobile site with special discounts.

Provide free wi-fi in store. This is especially effective if you combine it with promoting your own mobile site or app, but you’ll make points with shoppers no matter what. You could even trade access for an email address, giving you a new way to follow up with that customer, while they’re in store and beyond the holiday season. In one retail study, nearly three-quarters of respondents admitted they would like to receive texts or emails from retailers with special promotions while they’re on-site.

Low tech? No problem

You can combat showrooming in store with simple means such as posting reviews among merchandise displays, incentivizing shoppers to “buy now and take it with you” and ensuring every person who steps through your door receive the utmost in personalized attention this holiday retail season.Download Retail End Cap eBook

Leave a Comment