Newsmakers 2012: Omnichannel Showrooming
The big buzz for retail tech recently is omnichannel, which lets retailers serve customers any way they choose to access stores—in person, online, or through smartphone, tablet or social media.
Macy’s Inc. is looking to develop its omnichannel services, and long-suffering Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. has received praise from the retail-tech community for developing omnichannel retailing.
Shop.org Executive Director Vicki Cantrell said investment will grow—even if it develops slowly at first. “As mobile grows, so too will retailers’ investments in technologies that make sense for their shoppers,” she said.
Another tech worry for retailers is “showrooming”—consumers browsing stores to comparison shop with smartphones and tablets and leaving without making a purchase.
Market-research group IDC Retail Insights recently posted a report stating 20 percent of American adults find deals by showrooming, and IDC expects that number to skyrocket. This shopping phenomenon is most prevalent in electronics, footwear and beauty retailing, said Brian Dyches, chief experience officer of brand agency IkonicTonic and the international chair of trade group Retail Design Institute.
“Today’s consumer is geared around rebating and couponing,” Dyches said. “Retailers today need to understand that in order to combat showrooming, they need to offer rebates.”
How apparel retailers respond to showrooming remains to be seen, although one pure-play e-tailer, Bonobos, debuted its first showroom space for customers, called Guideshop, in New York last year and a second, in Palo Alto, Calif., which opened in September.—A.A.
