showrooming
Sign in to savethumb|Electronic items are among those frequently examined by customers in a retail store prior to their online purchase. Showrooming is the practice of examining merchandise in a traditional brick-and-mortar retail store or other offline setting, and then buying it online, sometimes at a lower price. Online stores often offer lower prices than their brick-and-mortar counterparts because they do not have the same overhead cost. Staff writers at the Wharton School have observed that showrooming and buying elsewhere is not new in itself, but its impact has become more significant with the greate
~3 min read
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Prevalence
- Effects on retailers
- Efforts to combat showrooming by retailers
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|Electronic items are among those frequently examined by customers in a retail store prior to their online purchase. Showrooming is the practice of examining merchandise in a traditional brick-and-mortar retail store or other offline setting, and then buying it online, sometimes at a lower price. Online stores often offer lower prices than their brick-and-mortar counterparts because they do not have the same overhead cost. Staff writers at the Wharton School have observed that showrooming and buying elsewhere is not new in itself, but its impact has become more significant with the greater availability of online purchasing.
The reverse phenomenon of showrooming is "research online, purchase offline", also known as webrooming. This is where customers research a product online before buying it at a physical store.