Just when you thought you had cracked one buzz word, along comes the next battleground in the war for the consumer – showrooming.

Just when you thought you had cracked ecommerce, m-commerce, multichannel, omnichannel et al, along comes the next battleground in the war for the consumer - showrooming, and we are back to square one in the fight for sales.

Showrooming is when the consumer looks at products in a bricks-and-mortar store but then goes online to find the same product cheaper elsewhere, perhaps even using the shop’s wi-fi to do this.

In the US, showrooming is considered the top strategic concern for retailers and we all know what happens over there soon comes here.

Amazon launched one of the first initiatives to allow online comparison with its ‘price check’ app in the US and, although it is not available in the UK at present, watch this space.

Recent research from US firm Placed has shown that certain retailers are more at risk than others from showrooming. General merchandise retailers top the list, but it also includes department stores and speciality retailers such as electricals retailers and toy shops.

With 1,800 UK shops closing last year, and m-commerce sales peaking at £7.5bn (a 304% increase on 2011), according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, m-commerce is here to stay and is only going to get stronger, multiplying the effects of showrooming.

So, what’s to be done? Perceived wisdom is that retailers should look at how to combat showrooming through adopting the following measures: range as much exclusive product as possible and ensure great stock availability; and lock your in-store wi-fi to only take the customer to your website.

Also, offer click-and-collect or free shipping and build customer experience. Think about price - Best Buy and Target in the US have announced they would match online prices.

This will not bring about the demise of showrooming as Amazon is known for its willingness to sacrifice margin in the pursuit of growth and Best Buy still has all the inherent costs associated with its national network of stores.

Whatever you do, do something because showrooming is here to stay.

  • Jamie Zuppinger, Co-founder and joint managing director, Barracuda Search

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