Majority of Showroomers Say Permanent Price Matching Encourages In-Store Purchase

June 7, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Agency Business | Digital | Mobile Phone | Retail & E-Commerce

Harris-Showroomer-Response-Price-Matching-June201340% of American adults claim to have checked out a product in a brick-and-mortar store before purchasing it elsewhere online (“showroomed”), according to a recent survey from Harris Interactive, although recent data from xAd and Telemetrics suggests that smartphones aren’t being used that often for showrooming. Nevertheless, retailers concerned with showrooming who have adopted a permanent price matching policy might be slightly encouraged with the results from the Harris study, which found 57% of showroomers saying they would be much (20%) or somewhat (37%) more likely to purchase in-store as a result. Still, a significant 39% said it wouldn’t sway them either way.

A recent study from RSR Research suggests that few retailers are adopting mobile price matching policies, preferring instead to try just to remain competitive.

When deciding to purchase in-store rather than online, more than 8 in 10 adults say that the following factors are important: being able to take the item home with them immediately (86%); taking advantage of sales in stores versus prices online (84%); not having to deal with the hassles of returning online such as paying for shipping and/or having to pack item (83%); and the ability to touch and feel the item (83%). Significantly fewer cite the ability to talk to a sales person (57%) as being an important factor.

Somewhat predictably, despite some indications that Amazon isn’t always the primary beneficiary of showrooming, the majority of respondents to the Harris study who have showroomed pointed to Amazon (57%) as the retailer they most frequently purchase from after visiting a brick-and-mortar store, with no other retailer exceeding 5% of showroomers.

Other Findings:

  • While in-store, 59% would rather use their smartphone to search for information about a product than ask a salesperson for help.
  • 1 in 2 respondents have purchased a product online from a retailer and then picked it up in-store, and 93% of those were satisfied with the process.
  • Only 1 in 5 respondents would be willing to pay more to get same day delivery when they shop online. 56% of those would pay $1-$5 more.

About the Data: The Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between April 15 and 17, 2013 among 2,114 adults (aged 18 and over), among whom 824 have showroomed. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

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