The demise of retail stores seems to be accelerating. What’s been dubbed as the “Retail Apocalypse” has claimed big-box names like JCPenney, Kmart and Sears, with more retailers popping up in headlines every day for closing stores.
Experts have pointed out the reasons — online orders are rising, sales floor staff is dwindling and resulting in dissatisfied shoppers, and pricing is much more competitive.
And now, showrooming, which started in the consumer electronics space, is spreading to the beauty, luxury, apparel verticals and more, thanks to expanded online SKUs and almost too good to believe delivery options.
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Who needs a store when everything you want is a click away?
Retailers are trying to avoid and deal with showrooming all together, but they’re forgetting one important strategy: their sales floor staff.
Rather than laying off staff, here’s how retailers should empower sales associates to address showrooming.
1. Prepare associates to be transparent, direct and non-defensive with showroomers in-store
Sales associates have a huge opportunity to use showrooming to influence a sale. Train your sales staff to notice shoppers who seem to be online price comparing and advise them to directly approach the shopper.
This is a great opportunity for the associate to offer a price match or to help walk the shopper through his or her options. Online reviews often aren’t very useful, but your sales associates can skillfully explain an item and its pros and cons in person. They can also upsell more easily.
The key is for the associate to be non-defensive, transparent and direct. This results in sales on the spot.
2. Prioritize personal experiences
Online retailers like Amazon do not have sales associates who can build relationships with customers, yet retail is an inherently relationship based business. Associates should position themselves as a friendly expert with advice to give to shoppers. This is a key strategy in building better relationships between local stores and their local clientele. This way, shoppers won’t even think twice about going somewhere else.
Associates who are able to make shoppers feel more confident about their purchase decisions are invaluable. Personal touch and human interaction can’t be replicated by online reviews and can even be more important than quick delivery.
The personal touch is an inherently strategic showrooming advantage only stores possess.
3. Integrate sales associates to the online shopping experience
As more shoppers use the web, it’s important that retailers leverage their biggest asset and make their associates available online to customers. When associates are able to answer questions, engage with customers and provide personalized recommendations online, they are giving the customer what they need to purchase online or to drive them back in the store.
There are technologies, like Salesfloor, that help retailers integrate store associates into the online shopping experience.
4. Make shoppers remember you
Consider an example of a shopper looking for a pair of black shoes, but they’re out of stock in their local store. A sales associate who offers to call or email the shopper when the shoes come in is more likely to get that sale, especially when they have a relationship with the shopper.
It’s extremely important to follow through with this — building trust with a shopper is a sure-fire way to retain their business, especially since there is no digital equivalent of having a shopper’s trust and delivering consistently excellent customer care.
New technology is making this even easier for sales associates by automating the process. Even if a shopper is a first-timer or someone a sales associate doesn’t have a relationship with, the least the associate should do is retrieve their contact information to follow up with the client later on in order to drive future return sales.
5. Anticipate future needs
Showrooming happens in retail stores, so sales associates need to be one step ahead — even before the shopper walks through the doors.
Smart retailers are training their sales associates to track when shoppers make purchases to predict when they might run out or need something else. Think about department store makeup counters. The associates can easily log purchases and then follow up a few months later knowing the shopper’s mascara or lipstick may have run out.
The key is these emails must be more than just a “we’d love to see you back” message. They must go the extra step to offer to have the associate set aside products for pickup, schedule an appointment to go over different options or send personalized product recommendations.
By anticipating a shopper’s needs, associates can get ahead of showrooming and make shoppers feel taken care of.
Although retailers are sick of the word “showrooming,” it is a reality that is here to stay. By strategically leveraging a store’s greatest asset, their sales associates, retailers can address showrooming and potentially use it to their competitive advantage.
Oscar Sachs is CEO and co-founder of Salesfloor, the first platform to allow customers to shop online directly with their local store or favorite associate, bringing the in-store experience online. Formerly a retail executive responsible for store operations at the Aldo Group and Best Buy, Sachs led some of retail’s earliest omnichannel initiatives to create a bridge between the online and store worlds. He is the founder of several successful startups in the retail digital space, such as Ad Splash Media, the first company to develop a digital media program for the top online e-Commerce sites. Sachs earned his MBA degree from McGill University.
