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Omnichannel Approach Helps Retailers Fight Showrooming

As the holiday season approaches, a new report from eMarketer says that retailers are using an omnichannel strategy to combat showrooming. The September report, titled “Holiday Shopping Preview: Omnichannel’s Blurred Lines,” states that retailers are less nervous about showrooming this year than they were in 2012.

B&M retailers have been working to institute changes that will help them compete more effectively with websites, which is especially important during the peak shopping months of November and December. eMarketer “expects more than 23.7 percent of the $262.3 billion in US retail ecommerce sales forecast for all of 2013 to occur” during those two months.

The new, more seamless approach includes launching new mobile initiatives allowing stores to reach customers on any mobile device, revamping their inventory, instituting new price matching policies and shipping and pickup options.

New mobile checkouts will not only eliminate waiting on line, but some larger retailers will enable employees to locate out of stock items from their devices and have them shipped with just a few clicks.

Shoppers that go online to read reviews and compare prices before heading out to the store to see the product in person have a good reason to buy the item locally: aggressive price matching and the opportunity to leave the store with their selection, no shipping necessary.

It’s been a common practice for retailers to only match advertised prices from other B&M retailers.  In an attempt to combat showrooming, several large retailers including Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us will match online prices from selected retailers including Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Sears.com and several others. Some exclusions apply, of course, but customers who are willing to do the research could save additional cash.