By Andrew Scarbrough, Co-Founder and COO, PriceWaiter
Showrooming has been around for decades. First, it started with consumers rolling into your brick-and-mortar shoe store, trying on shoes and then buying at your local competitor or maybe a big-box catalog. You knew this was taking place but could only focus on winning the loyal customers, carrying different brands, and leveraging your relationships with your manufacturers to keep your prices low.
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Showrooming has evolved
More recently, mobile technology has made it easier than ever for consumers to showroom at physical stores. Apps like RedLaser and Amazon PriceCheck give these consumers instant feedback on how in-store pricing compares to the best the web has to offer — often with little or no tax and shipping. The rise in this new tech-fueled showrooming has led some retailers to go so far as to charge “fitting fees,” charging all visitors to their store only to refund that fee if the visitor made a purchase.
“Virtual showrooming” is just as expensive but even harder to control
What is often lost in today’s discussion about showrooming is how the online retailer is affected by a similar kind of showrooming — virtual showrooming — on their e-Commerce site.
Stores on the web, like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, invest heavily in their shops. They pay for ads, marketing and PR to attract traffic. They spend money on their stores to make them attractive. Many hold inventory, and most have staff dedicated to sales, delivery and customer service.
Analytics-savvy retailers will realize showrooming is happening just like with brick-and-mortar — only faster, on a larger scale and more measurably. Unlike the brick and mortar stores, you know the precise conversion rate of your e-Commerce operation. If you’re doing well you may be converting 3% to 5% of your traffic. So what’s happening to that other 95% to 97% of traffic you likely paid for?
The challenge: frictionless, anonymous comparison shopping
Sure, some online shoppers are only to the research phase of their purchase and aren’t ready to buy. Others may be loyal customers checking in on new arrivals or current promotions. But how many are virtually showrooming?
These comparison shoppers have no limitations on hopping in and out of stores online. Comparison shopping engines like PriceGrabber and Google Shopping increasingly grow in popularity, and the big guys like Amazon, eBay and Walmart continue to swallow online traffic. There are even browser extensions that proactively show your shoppers the same product page for a lower price elsewhere on the web.
“Deal” with it
What factors are “showroomers” considering when they hop from site to site? What can you do to keep them in your store and commit to purchase? Commodification has consumed the internet, and price is now the primary driver in a retailer’s success or failure. As competition intensifies, price proliferates as the top consumer consideration for purchase decisions.
Depending on your budget, dynamic pricing tools offer real-time ability to change prices on your product pages based on factors like conversion and margin increases.
A name your price tool is another innovative strategy to consider – it engages showroomers by establishing an efficient negotiation process that also mitigates effects of MAP. The art of negotiation is a concept lost in e-commerce, and a new generation of connected consumers crave a more in-depth experience with the brands they love. Prominently displaying price-match programs, or the opportunity to “call for best price” is worth testing and exploring in order to bring this art back into the fold.
Service still matters
Beyond price, showroomers are also concerned with your service, and if you can demonstrate it is better, it can make a difference. How do your customer service and policies stack up against the competition? Do your phone lines lead to a person quickly, consistently, and throughout the day? Do you offer a live chat option? Do you have a generous return policy, or even a trial period? What about free shipping or other guarantees? If you’re able to maintain inventory be sure to use in-stock indicators and prominent shipping notices. You can even use schema.org markup to let users see product availability directly on search engine result pages.
Leverage your existing buyers
For those users that are in the research or education phase you can start winning the showrooming battle early with quality on-site reviews. Feedback from certified buyers will instill confidence in other consumers, and a focus on incentivizing buyers to become reviewers will help build a solid community on your site that leads to more sales.
React accordingly
Even with increased conversion rates you’ll still want to target users as they leave your site. Exit intent tools like Bounce Exchange can help users think twice about hitting that back button or closing your tab. Offering coupons or other incentives to garner email addresses right before exit can help assist with micro-conversions – letting you live to fight another day with targeted follow-up email campaigns.
Showrooming lives on, and is evolving quickly in the digital age. But like the shoe storeowner, whether you’re on Main Street, on the web — or both — you can succeed if you evolve along with it.
As the Co-Founder and COO at PriceWaiter, Andrew Scarbrough is revolutionizing e-Commerce and the future of price strategy with an innovative “Name Your Price” platform that engages more customers, converts more sales and makes MAP moot. In addition to founding PriceWaiter, Scarbrough is the Co-Founder and COO at Delegator.com. With a background in web analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and cloud computing, he has played a significant role in the development and execution of successful SEO, e-Commerce and web marketing strategies for companies both large and small.
