As evidenced by this sign posted in a window at British camera retailer, Jessops, showrooming is a phenomenon that has had a significant impact on many brick-and-mortar retailers. And as creative as these retailers can get with their customer service offering, at the end of the day, it is difficult to convince shoppers that they should pay more money than they absolutely need to.
As a self-confessed showroomer, I can totally relate to the thrill of getting a great item at a low price. And, for certain high-markup products such as clothing, the savings benefit of going online can be huge. There’s no need to explain how important this is when you’re on a tight budget.
For this reason, I was surprised by an article in Business Insider that discusses the emerging trend of reverse showrooming, or webrooming, where the customer researches a product online but actually buys the product in a brick-and-mortar shop. The article goes on to claim that webrooming is even more prominent than showrooming – with 69% of American’s webrooming, and only 49% showrooming.
After reading the article, I realized that I’m also guilty of webrooming, mostly for items that I know little about. For instance, if I’m trying to buy the latest video game as a holiday gift, I do my research online, but will typically buy the game in-store because I like being able to see what it looks like before I buy it.
Connecting this back to the Jessop’s window sign, while brick-and-mortar retailers might be losing out to cheaper online retailers, webrooming creates the possibility to take back some of this business. I think there is definitely the opportunity to do this with with small electronic goods, such as cameras, that seem to come in an endless variety of choices, but look almost identical to the untrained eye. Hopefully Jessops can find a way to take advantage of webrooming customers such as myself, to offset sales lost to online retailers.