Showrooming

Rakesh Kumar

16 Dec, 2024

Showrooming is the practice of examining products in a brick-and-mortar retail store before buying them online, usually at a lower price. This consumer behavior leverages the physical availability of products to aid in online purchasing decisions. It is facilitated by the use of smartphones and other devices, and stands in contrast to “webrooming,” where customers research products online before purchasing them in a physical store.

What Is Showrooming?

Showrooming is supposed to be a culture or practice for examining the pattern of old traditional brick-and-mortar retail shops and buying the available goods online at a cheaper cost. Usually, showrooming culture provides a platform for all consumers to check out, touch, see and feel the quality of available products in the market before investing their hard-earned amount. This pattern is followed for pricing available products in the market. Webrooming is just a reciprocal of showrooming, where consumers, before buying any product through traditional retail shops, refer to do research regarding the product online. With the rapid advancement in technology in terms of electronic gadgets like smartphones and other devices, showrooming has widely become repeated. Online shop retailers, including consumers, are getting more from showrooming due to the competitive price tag being offered, likewise the traditional retailers.   Showrooming supports purchasing online while webrooming supports purchasing in a physical store.

Brick and Mortar

Refers to an organization or any business having its physical presence within any building or in another form of structure. This term is in practice to denote any establishment that holds or leases out different retail shops, provides a factory manufacturing structure, or allows warehouses to perform business operations. Usually, such companies experience a face-to-face consumer experience in selling out of their products in the market.

 KEY POINTS

• Gathering necessary information related to products or goods using brick–and–mortar stores before buying it online at the cheapest cost.
• This culture provides a platform for all consumers to check out, touch, see and feel the quality of available products in the market before investing their hard-earned amount.
• E-commerce and rapid advancement in technology among consumers seem to follow the showrooming culture on the large landscape.
• Both customer & online platforms benefit from showrooming. Online retailers provide free shipping on goods.

How does Showrooming Function?

• Previously, there was no such advancement in technology; interested consumers need to visit door-to-door goods retailers’ shops so as to find a good and feasible product within their budget. Traditionally, customers approach to find goods at the best prices. As technology gets advanced and increases the quantity of cell phone users, online shopping has completely changed the traditional practice of customers and made shopping easier by saving time, too. Somehow, customers need to visit the retailer’s shop to some extent before buying any product. Now, it has become so easy to find an authorized store using the internet and visit there to check out the product, touch, feel the comforts, etc., to know about the range of their available online product quality. Suppose any consumer needs to buy a t-shirt, then he will like to visit an authorized store and try some sort of similar t-shirt to check their fittings, comforts, etc., prior to placing an order of such things on a large scale through online platforms.
• Showrooming permits customers to visit any store of their choice while making the decision to buy products from the market. They can easily compare other existing shops availing the same kind of goods while visiting the same store. Using the internet, a customer or consumer can easily come across a store that is offering the same goods at a very low cost. This facility can be possible only with the showrooming.
• Online retailers like Amazon & Flipkart usually offer free shipping to their valued customers or customers who opt for their free shipping service on a certain purchase of products. Not only consumers, we all want to buy only those products having good quality and are cheaper in cost.

Showrooming vs. web rooming

• It found in a report that at least 59% of customers are supposed to refer and check out the goods’ quality and manufacturing prospects online before going to buy it from any authorized store (Web rooming).
• Meanwhile, it’s also reported that 54% of consumers are satisfied with purchasing any goods online after visiting to check out the quality, comforts, etc., from the authorized store and buy it online (showrooming).
• Simply visiting the store to check out products but ordering them online for low cost is showrooming, while the opposite of showrooming is brand loyalty.
•  Refer store rather than buying it online is Web rooming.

The reason why showrooms existsShowroom

• With an objective to show or display a large variety of goods manufactured by a company.
• Widely accepted and enough space to exhibit goods such as automobiles, electronic devices, etc.
• Product or goods placed for sale purposes, etc., the world’s biggest Showroom in Abu Dhabi with premises of 35k sq. meters.

 Showrooming Affects Retail Stores

• Technological advancement eases the showrooming process and is used to support consumers/customers in placing an online order. Customers can easily order the product online and get the delivery according to their flexibility.
• Customers are being offered huge discounts on products or services rather than brick-and-mortar retailers. Even they are offered free shipping services.