By Doug Stephens<\/p>\n

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Remember those ads a few years ago describing the little-known affliction called restless leg syndrome?\u00a0 Few of us had ever heard of the disorder but to listen to the ads, one was prone to believe it was an epidemic.\u00a0 Who, after all, doesn\u2019t experience the odd bad night\u2019s sleep or a little restlessness.\u00a0 And, given that just before we wake up, we\u2019re\u2026 well… asleep, it wasn\u2019t hard for pharmaceutical marketers and the media to convince us that while in that sleep we were literally doing the Harlem Shake!\u00a0 Yup! Restless leg syndrome was apparently keeping us all up at night!<\/p>\n

But in fact, according to Johns Hopkins Medical Center, only approximately 5 percent of the general population may genuinely suffer from restless leg syndrome to the extent that it affects sleep.\u00a0 Hardly an epidemic when compared to dozens of other more widespread and serious conditions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cShowrooming\u201d has become a little like restless leg syndrome.<\/h2>\n

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It too is a condition that\u2019s difficult to prove and yet very easy to believe you’re afflicted with – especially when marketers and the media keep telling you you are.\u00a0 Not only have retailers like Best Buy and Walmart come to blame much of their woes on showrooming, there are also loads of technology, marketing and media companies out there right now thriving on perpetuating the belief that showrooming is the very source of those sales woes! Showrooming has become a catalyst for a whole new range of omni-channel support, systems and services. \u00a0Showrooming is big business.<\/p>\n

The facts about showrooming however, tell a different story.<\/h2>\n

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A recent and relatively robust survey<\/a> <\/b>from Bizrate of 9,000 shoppers who had just consummated an online purchase, concluded that even among the relatively small percentage of shoppers who actually showroom (almost 80% do not), the majority end up buying from that same retailer\u2019s online store \u2013 not from a competitor, as we are often led to believe.<\/p>\n

Now, does this mean that consumers aren\u2019t making better use of the data at their disposal via mobile devices?\u00a0 Certainly not.\u00a0 Plenty of studies have confirmed the growing influence of mobile on pre-purchase and in-purchase behavior. \u00a0And that’s only likely to continue. What it does suggest however, is that just like restless leg syndrome isn\u2019t the likely cause of most lost sleep, showrooming isn\u2019t the cause of most lost sales – not yet anyway.<\/p>\n

So what’s the real problem?<\/h2>\n

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From my point of view, it’s that we live in a world of one-click convenience and no one really needs what <\/i>you sell anymore.\u00a0 They do however, need why<\/i> and how<\/i> you sell it.\u00a0 But if your store isn\u2019t substantially differentiated or remarkable enough to hold a distinct and powerful position in the consumer\u2019s mind and win their love and loyalty, you\u2019re going to lose sales to online players every day.\u00a0 Not because consumers are sneaky.\u00a0Not because showrooming is rampant.\u00a0 And not because technology is evil.\u00a0 But because your business and the shopper experience you’ve offered simply aren’t compelling enough to command the sale.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

So don\u2019t be taken in to believing that you’re being afflicted by some new, obscure condition.\u00a0 And don\u2019t look for a pill to miraculously cure you.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t one I\u2019m afraid.\u00a0 Instead, go back to the drawing board and ask \u201cWhat does my business offer the world that it can’t get elsewhere?\u201d \u00a0If you can’t come up with an exceptionally good answer, showrooming isn’t your real problem at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens Remember those ads a few years ago describing the little-known affliction called restless leg syndrome?\u00a0 Few of us had ever heard of the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[24,118,237,78,253],"class_list":["post-2855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-retail","tag-retail-prophet","tag-retail-revival","tag-shopper-marketing-3","tag-showrooming"],"yoast_head":"\n