More Than a Showroom | springerprofessional.de

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2016 | Buch

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More Than a Showroom

Strategies for Winning Back Online Shoppers

verfasst von: Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

The growing phenomenon of showrooming plagues sales managers and small retailers in ever increasing numbers as technology has evolved to create smarter and more empowered consumers. Showrooming refers to the phenomenon of consumers – or potential consumers - browsing products in a retail store, and then ultimately purchasing online at a lower price through another store. In the age of the Internet, the sight of a customer who will visit a store and use their smartphone to scan the barcode, hoping to find the same item at a cheaper price from a different vendor has become commonplace. Through exhaustive research, the authors of this book investigate this exploding trend and offer strategies, tools, and training approaches that can help to transform showrooming customers into in-store sales.

Offering retail managers and owners deep insight into how they can stem the loss of resources to showrooming, this book, through a close, systematic examination of showrooming, provides insight and understanding of the value added through customer service and expert salesperson knowledge. Retailers will learn how to implement essential, incremental changes to infuse value in the customer experience and entice significantly improved in-store sales while building core customer relationships and enhancing loyalty.

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: What Is Showrooming?

Abstract

We have all seen it. A customer walks in, not looking casually or really browsing, but focused, with smartphone ready. Not seeking help on the floor, but moving directly toward a particular section in the store. He or she may respond to a salesperson’s attempt to engage—the friendly “Can I help you?” or “Can I show you something?” or “Can I help you find something today?”—with an assured, calm, even careless response, “I’m fine, thanks!” or “I’ve got it covered, thanks!” or “I’m good, thanks!”

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 2. Today’s Customers

Abstract

The retail industry today is more dynamic than it has ever been. Fundamental shifts in consumer behavior over the past 15 years have led some industry experts to predict that retail will change more over the next 5 years than it has in the past century.¹ In the wake of what many have referred to as the Great Recession, consumers have developed new attitudes that are having a fundamental influence on their purchase patterns and their purchasing behaviors.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 3. Reward Systems: Compensation at the Store Level

Abstract

Showrooming is an evolving, complex activity. Before approaching this problem effectively, it is critical to recognize the inherent complexity of showrooming behavior and to understand how it has continued to evolve with the increasing availability of mobile technologies. Showrooming takes place in retail contexts that can be broken down into two discreet “levels” or points of focus in the store: the employees in the store represent the first level, and the retail venue itself makes up the second level.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 4. Reward Programs: Loyalty at the Store Level

Abstract

The nature of retail and the retailing process has been changed in fundamental ways. These changes have been in large part a result of accessible, inexpensive, powerful, and easy-to-use mobile technology combined with an almost entirely transparent flow of information to retail consumers. Attempting to fight showrooming behaviors can alienate valuable and potentially very loyal customers. Showroomers aren’t the enemy. In fact, they may actually be retailers’ most undervalued customer segment.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 5. In-Store Wi-Fi: Engaging Showroomers on Their Terms

Abstract

One thing that is certain in the evolving retailing landscape is that things are changing—and changing fast. One of the most startling parts of the changing retailing puzzle is that free instore Wi-Fi is becoming the norm among retailers. Stores everywhere are giving customers free access to the Internet and by extension (if the wrong focus is given to the problem) a conduit to potential competition. Free Wi-Fi access? This is where customers are today. It is what they expect when they walk into almost any kind of business, from the hair salon to the hardware store to the doctor’s office. If retailers want to remain current and to keep up with what their competition is doing, this is where they need to be as well. Today, in-store free Wi-Fi isn’t like having valet parking or gourmet coffee; it’s more like having lights on in the store. Without free Wi-Fi, customers will walk out and go to another venue where things operate as they expect them to.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 6. Price Matching: To Match or Not to Match?

Abstract

Regardless of the product category, market segment, geographic location, or target customer base, pricing and decisions about pricing tactics are among the most critical areas of a firm’s marketing strategy. Consumers have always been price conscious and focused on getting the lowest possible price. What we refer to today as “comparison shopping” is really only a modern term for a practice that is as old as commerce itself. Before the web, consumers purchased product guidebooks, read magazine reviews, scanned circulars, perused the newspaper, and visited many stores before making any big purchase. This practice is not new, but its form has changed. The changes are substantial and coincide with the advent of the newest widely available mobile technologies. We now comparison shop with smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers that make our searches for competing products and services more efficient and inclusive than was possible without these mobile technologies and their infrastructure that we now take for granted.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 7. No-No’s at the Store Level: What Not to Do When Faced with Showrooming

Abstract

Faced with the devastating financial consequences of showrooming, many retailers have developed approaches to combat this increasingly common consumer practice. But what happens when retailers push back against showrooming in the wrong ways? Some stores are actively pursuing policies to restrict showrooming. The direct implication of combative approaches is that instead of evolving and growing with customers and adapting to modern retailing realities, stores that restrict showrooming behaviors are likely to see negative consequences as they try to hold customers back. A restriction of customers’ in-store research activity constrains their interactions with the store’s products, which can be perceived negatively by customers, who may then see the store as the “enemy.” We’ve seen a wide range of restrictive policies emerge. These have included charging customers to browse or “firing” customers who take advantage of the retailer or of the salespeople. Not all approaches are actively aggressive. Passive or behind-the-scenes examples that retailers have adopted to combat showrooming activities include blocking in-store Wi-Fi and removing bar codes from packaging.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 8. Employee Coping Behaviors: Handling the Stresses of Showrooming with Proactive Engagement

Abstract

As retailers today move into a brave new world that is being fundamentally redefined by the emergence of customer showrooming, it is critical to understand that not only is the business itself going through a core transformation, the ways sales professionals interact with customers are also changing in profound ways. As these changing patterns of customer engagement are emerging, frontline salespeople are also experiencing increasing levels of workplace stress as they seek to cope with the new demands showrooming is placing on them.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 9. Customer Service in a Technological World: A Timeless Strategy for a Digital Dilemma

Abstract

Acritical point for moving customers toward in-store sales and away from online purchases—one that is actually a catalyst for showrooming behaviors in the first place—is increased customer value. Technically savvy shoppers today, who use the Internet in an effort to beat retailers at the price game, often believe that the best value can be generated through price comparisons available to them through transparent pricing data on the Internet. Fortunately, they are wrong. In-store professionals, properly armed with technology, training, information, and product knowledge can offer customers and potential customers more value that doesn’t necessarily depend on price as a core criterion. A central benefit to retailers who have a well-trained sales staff capable of providing high levels of quality customer service is that this can directly help drive in-store sales and convert showroomers away from buying online.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Chapter 10. Employees as Knowledge Brokers: Understanding How Expertise Is Your Ally

Abstract

The most evolutionary shift in what it means to be a sales professional in the twenty-first century is a fundamental transition from the conventional role of a salesperson to the role of a knowledge broker. When customers are showrooming, they offer sales professionals a clear signal that they are interested in gathering product knowledge and in considering potentially available alternative options to what is being offered in the store. This signal creates an opportunity for an impactful, transformative sales interaction between a well-prepared sales representative and a potential customer.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Looking Forward in an Omnichannel World

Abstract

As is becoming clearer across the full spectrum of social and commercial spheres impacting commerce today, technology has become indispensable. Digital capabilities are more important than ever before and are likely to increase in importance as more and more of our activities take place in virtual spaces. Perhaps more important, the connections we have with the virtual infrastructure that connects us is portable; we take it with us. So, not surprisingly, end users and consumers across all categories rely significantly more on mobile technology as their primary vehicle for connecting with merchants.

Daniel G. Bachrach, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp, Joe Calamusa IV

Backmatter

Titel: More Than a Showroom
verfasst von: Daniel G. Bachrach
Jessica Ogilvie
Adam Rapp
Joe Calamusa IV
Copyright-Jahr: 2016
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-55189-4
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56709-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137551894

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