A recent study of showrooming activity is more bad news for retailers that subscribe to the conventional wisdom that mobile is a threat. But a couple of forward-thinking merchants -- Nordstrom and Best Buy -- are looking to use mobile to their advantage.
Some 43 percent of consumers showroom, according to a Harris Poll released this week. Best Buy and Walmart are the most popular showrooming destinations (24 percent and 22 percent). And Amazon is the most likely beneficiary of showrooming; more than half of showroomers said that's where they buy (57 percent), according to the poll.
Showroomers spend an average $211.80 per purchase.
But retailers aren't taking the competition lying down. In the latest effort to make brick-and-mortar shopping more attractive, retailers are tossing cash registers onto the junk heap, replacing them with mobile devices, according to a report on NPR.
The benefits: Mobile associates are more convenient than asking consumers to stand in cash register lines. And no cash register lines means less time for customers to change their minds about buying products and walk out. Also, mobile technology is often less expensive than traditional PoS, and removing cash registers frees up real estate in the store.
Nordstrom is a leader in this trend. It's replacing cash registers with modified iPod touch devices containing barcode scanners and credit card readers. When a customer finds merchandise they're ready to buy, a sales associate simply swipes the bar code and credit card, the customer signs with a fingertip, and is good to walk out the door.
"We think the days of the big clunky cash register... anchoring down a department are really going away," Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson told NPR.
And mobile is key to turnaround plans for Best Buy, says Stephen Gillett, the company's new VP of digital, global, marketing, and strategy, told Wired.
"We have a range of opportunities," he says. "There are challenges, but I like the set of cards I have been given."
Best Buy is closing stores -- a process that is limited by long-term leases. And the company is looking to turn remaining stores into an advantage by striking at mobile commerce's Achilles' heel. "People want to try before they buy, and they can't do that on Amazon," writes Wired.
And Best Buy marries its brick-and-mortar presence with its own online business. By revenue, it's the 11th largest e-commerce site, at about $3 billion per year. "That's a fraction of Amazon's electronics business and just 6 percent of Best Buy's total revenue, but it's growing by 15 to 20 percent every quarter," Wired says.
Retailers like Best Buy and Nordstrom are showing the way to beat showrooming. Instead of running away from mobile competition, retailers need to embrace it.
Circuit City's slogan used to be, "Where service is state of the art!" My wife and I used to joke that it was state of the art for the Soviet Union in 1965.
B. Krafte - I would not describe Best Buy as showing lack of vision. Quite the contrary, they've been aggressive online and enthusiastic adopters of marketing automation. I don't know why they've been struggling, but I suspect it has to do with real-estate costs they're contractually committed too, along with the usual difficulties of turning around a large enterprise.
I've had such problems with the commissions-driven assistants in clothing stores, that it's deteriorated into me circling the store, trying to get away from them, dodging around corners... Ridiculous. I've usually had the opposite experience in tech stores; can't find anyone on the floor.
First let me talk about my behavior, which I think many people can relate to. For electronics I do some research online, when I'm down to 2 or 3 options I go to Best Buy and get a better sense of them. But THEN, I almost always go online and look for the best prices.
How can Best Buy capture clients like me? They should add value and make me change my decision that price always beats everything else.
"People want to try before they buy, and they can't do that on Amazon"
Mitch,
Wired's assertion has a lot of truth to it and right that it can't be done within the confines of the strictly online marketplaces. The question is however, given Best Buy's and the others who have shown a lack of vision and imagination over the past decade, will they actually be able to pull off a marriage between their retail store presence and the online business?
Best Buy is certainly well positioned to do just that; transition its traditional retail model into a showroom model, redirecting the purchasing process to online, mobile and self-serve kiosk platforms. Leveraging their current retail presence by converting their more heavily trafficked stores into showrooms while closing the rest as leases expire would be a smart strategy. It will reduce costs, increase margins and potentially establish the company as distribution powerhouse (not to mention save themselves from complete self-destruction). If they do it right, they'll also use the opportunity to transform themselves into a customer-centric brand digging out from behind what has to be one of the worst customer service reputations among retailers.
kiranIE - Clingy sales associates aren't a technology issue -- they're a training issue. The associates should learn how to read a customer.
I do know what you mean, though. Sometimes I'll go into an electronics store just to pass the time, and sometimes I feel uncomfortable telling a sales associate, "Just browsing." Now that I've articulated that thought, it seems very silly though.
The Apple stores themselves are following the same model. And I have to say I was plesantly surprised when a rep helped me with one of the products and when I had made up my mind, immediately scanned my card in a handy machine- off I go!
With that said, I do feel customers need some space for themselves. I need to be able to walk around the store and feel the product for myself. And I will admit most times the reason why I never get around to buy a certain thing is because the clingy salesman never leaves my side and allows me the comfort to experiace the product. I wonder having all the employess on the floor would further exaggerate this phenomenon.
You know I'm perfectly willing to shop online with an etailer without seeing a product, but it's the returning of things that irks me.
How about an etailer that simply has small customer service kiosks with a live representative to deal with things?
So, for example, I was all set to press the button and order a $67 dollar android tablet from someone I had not dealt with, but a few facets of their website made me question things.
I read some reviews and found both praise and some who said they could not return goods. (Of course now we can't trust reviews either!)
If I could just meet up at a mall with someone to assure me and answer those last nagging doubts...
lin cramption - Possibly people just have to get used to using the roving cashiers. And Nordstrom may have to do more to educate customers on their availability.
Ryck - The waiting point would only be used when the store is crowded and shortstaffed. Ideally, that wouldn't happen -- you'd want salespeople roaming the floor, available to customers when needed.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Almost everyone agrees that data analytics, digital marketing, apps, and APIs will greatly affect their enterprise's results in the next 12 months. But a report suggests that not all large corporations are moving quickly to adopt these enabling technologies -- and that could seriously harm their profitability, customer satisfaction, and chances for ongoing success.
Enterprises are embracing open-source to avoid vendor lock-in, get better-quality software, and gain access to larger libraries of applications. In return, they may be putting themselves at risk for higher, more complex support costs.
Whereas some businesses search externally when they need a CIO, Choice Hotels had to look only at its CTO for someone with the necessary expertise, industry knowledge, and technological know-how to continue leading the company's embrace of enabling technologies.
Local social media can be powerful marketing tools, but they can't just be add-ons. They need to be tightly integrated into the corporate culture, according to Whole Foods social marketers.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
Companies need to take advantage of new technologies to simplify interfaces, improve capabilities, and enhance back-office processes. But they can't upgrade their Websites too often.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
Email This
