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Two tales of retail showrooming

May 8, 2012 by Jeff Weidauer — Vice President, Marketing & Strategy, Vestcom International, Inc.

By now most folks have heard about "showrooming," the relatively new activity where consumers visit a brick and mortar store, look at a product they are interested in, and then buy it online. According to a Wall St. Journal article published last month, half of shoppers who made a purchase online checked the product out first in a local store. More than a few retailers are concerned about this activity, but it's their specific response that I find interesting.

I've spent some time recently in both Best Buy and Target, two of the retailers mentioned in the WSJ article. My experiences were vastly different, as are each store's apparent approach to mitigating the impact of showrooming.

First the positive. I went to the local Best Buy with my two-year-old daughter last week in search of an iPad mount for the car. We were planning a road trip, and I wanted her to have the ability to play a game or watch a movie during the trip.

When I walked in the store, I spent about two minutes poking around the Apple section in the store before an employee asked me if she could help me find something. I told her what I was looking for, and she took me to one. "It's even on sale!" Great—I grabbed the mount, and headed off to another part of the store.

While I was looking at the new movie releases on DVD, the same store employee came back and showed me another example of an iPad mount. This one was more expensive, but had more features. Not a hard sell, but just making certain I had seen all the options Best Buy had to offer. I stuck with my original selection, got a smile and a thank you, and she went on her way.

Contrast that with my recent experience at Target; this is the company asking its suppliers to create unique packaging and UPCs for the products it carries so shoppers can't make direct in-store comparisons. Also the company that announced it will no longer sell Amazon's Kindle because too many shoppers come to the store, test it out, but then buy it online.

I went to Target in search of some small plastic drawers for the garage. I found a couple for $2.98 and took them to the checkout. That's when the fun began.

The drawers rang up $7.98. I called the cashier's attention to this, and she told me "they rang up $7.98." No kidding...I can see that. A manager of some sort was walking by, and the cashier called her over. I explained my problem. She said she would need to see the shelf label.

Fine. I went and pulled the label off the shelf and took it back to her. "The numbers don't match." Really? I'm supposed to check the numbers in 6-point type against the product that is placed above the tag on the shelf?

Here's the best part: "Fine – give away the store." That's what the manager told the cashier as she walked away and waved me off. Even better: the cashier refused to refund the amount charged, or even the difference. I left both items on the counter and walked out. When I got home I ordered the same drawers on Amazon.

When the recession began a new term was added to the American lexicon: "too big to fail." Neither of these two companies is too big to fail. One knows it, and is acting accordingly. The other is at risk of learning that lesson the hard way.

About Jeff Weidauer

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