Posted on 11/17/2012 1:23:44 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
This holiday season, 48 million shoppers—about 20% of the U.S. adult population—will use their smartphones to compare prices and research products while shopping in stores, a practice known as “showrooming,” IDC Retail Insights finds in a new survey. This represents a 134% increase from 2011 when 20.5 million shoppers engaged in showrooming. IDC forecasts the number of showrooming shoppers will grow to 59 million next year, 69 million in 2014 and 78 million in 2015. This year, according to the new research, showrooming will influence $700 million to $1.7 billion in holiday retail purchases.
Big-ticket items, in particular those that consumers can easily evaluate by reading descriptions, specifications, ratings and reviews, will be the biggest target of consumers shopping with smartphones, according to the IDC report, “Business Strategy: At Hand Versus In Hand—Will Consumers Have the Upper Hand in the 2012 Holiday Showroom Showdown?” IDC surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults with Internet access.
Between 7% and 13% of consumer electronics shoppers will use their smartphones at least once in stores this season...
(Excerpt) Read more at internetretailer.com ...
Not too ethical. I guess more stores will be losing up.
This consumer only going to stock up on food and other needs to ride out Obama&Co depression that starts in 2013.
if you spend 30 minutes with a camera clerk at a busy store and turn around and buy it online to save a few bucks, you are stealing from that store as if you pocketed something and walked out.
i bought an airbrush from my local hobby store so i have no problem, assuming they aren’t swamped, spending 20 minutes or so asking about techniques. we get a 15% discount for model club so, if the same model is on line for $5 less (taxes vs shipping.....) i will still buy it from the LHS. 50% sale online is a whole different matter.
however given the outcome of the election and the number of takers vs makers now in amerika, ethical concerns are way down on the list for the majority of amerikans.
How is it stealing?
Some dept stores have stopped stocking certain items for this reason. If it isn’t exclusive or different from the online stores in some way, they don’t want it for that reason.
Why would you pay up to 30% markup on an identical item that can be found on hundreds of websites? Why would you even bother listening to a sales clerk when you can read hundreds of reviews online? Big box stores are a waste of time and were pros at scamming people (rebates anyone?).
Maybe since you are too lazy and disrespectful of your readers to try to use the caps key, your word words ring hallow of disrespect as well. Writing like a third grader was never cool, just stupid and lazy.
What is unethical about anything described here?
This is our last Christmas to avoid sales tax on Amazon purchases in Indiana. These days the UPS guy knows my dog’s name and brings him treats.
In a way, theft of service. The store paid to provide the customer with the pre-sales work that the online house got the sale from.
Wow, I'm amazed at the sheer ignorance of some Freepers here who don't even have a basic knowledge of how the sales process works, or the difference between a prospect and a customer. You guys know less than Obama.
How is it stealing? All the store has to do is agree to meet any lower prices - Wal-Mart does it at the cash registers and our local store even lets you know if something is cheaper at a store down the road and discounts to match.
But to the sales person working commission who just missed other sales giving someone the information they needed to make a purchase decision that they did online, it took money out of the pocket of someone working for a living.
Unethical in my mind.
My dad worked in retail sales much of my years at home. Base salary would not have kept us alive. Commissions were needed to make ends meet.
Stop being insulting. Your disregard for that commissioned sales person and only thought being for the store owner is why we are tagged as being only for the rich.
When I worked at Dell, I used to get beat on price by people within the same company. Not because they were doing anything unethical, but because there were different promotions within different divisions. I'd call a potential customer about a quote I'd sent them and they'd say, "Sorry, bought it cheaper at DHS (Dell Home Services)."
Retail sales is tough, and retailers offer floor salespeople, promotions, financing, and demo units all without any sort of ethical, moral, or legal commitment to buy anything. I'm sorry that it offends your sensibilities that some people shop on price alone, but your feelings are irrelevant when it comes to the reality of the market.
This is not about competition; the article is about the practice of people going to a retail establishment, taking the salesperson's time to collect all information to make a purchase, then popping online on your smartphone and buy it from an online site that can sell it for less since they do not provide the sales support.
Are you ethically OK with that practice?
The article is about people who look up products on their smartphone while shopping for them in a retail store. The article says that when help they're helped by a sales associate, they're more likely to buy in-store than online.
Of course I'm "OK" with people browsing in a store, or several stores, talking with salespeople, and buying from the cheapest merchant, whether it's online or brick and mortar. It's called being a smart consumer.
If I go to an electronics store and talk to a sales rep, and then go next door to another store and find it cheaper and buy it, there's also nothing wrong with that.
You seem to be stuck in this stone aged view of retail where brick and mortar are the "real" stores, and online merchants are illegitimately infringing on a market that is not theirs.
It's the merchants job to win the sale, and if they don't, because of price or otherwise, TS.
Your mindset reminds me of the Occupy movement. A salesperson is somehow "owed" the sale just because he talked to a potential customer for five minutes even though his price is higher, and it's "unfair" that he doesn't get the close because an online store is able to offer it cheaper even AFTER shipping costs. This may be the standard narrative at the Barack Obama School of Business, but it has absolutely no grounding in the real world.
I find it difficult that you work in sales. You seem to think insulting someone is the way to make your point.
But who am I but just the idiot to you. Thank you for letting me know who you work for; in your own little way you have given me pre-sales information for my future computer purchases.
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