Shopping Online Versus In-store
When we are sitting before a computer, staring at its screen and looking at a product we like
, the same old questions start turning in our heads: will it be safe to buy online, how can we try it out, and what do we have to pay additional for the shipping?Now lets say, we actually get to the store to check out the same product. Another set of questions start eating away at us: can we get a better deal online, why is the size we want never available on the rack, and was the time, cost and effort to make the trip to the store worth the value of the purchase we are about to make?
Making a choice between doing your shopping online with a click versus buying offline at a physical store is a debate waiting to snare us at every moment in this new technology-driven world. There are many advantages and disadvantages to both types of shopping. For example, shopping online tends to be as quick and easy - just do a Google search to locate the best price and then enter your credit card information, and voila, you can soon be the new owner of that product youve always been wanting. The bad news is that you then have to wait for the delivery. The less you are willing to pay for the delivery of online purchases, the longer the waiting time.
On the other hand, taking a trip to your local store satisfies your need to get that product right then and there, as opposed to waiting a few days or weeks for the delivery. Another big advantage to the more traditional option of buying in the store is that it lets you to handle and interact with the product you are interested in before you decide to buy.
For those who think it has to be an either-online-or-in-store kind of limited choice, theres a third smart option to making any purchase, and it is now called showrooming. Its a method where you first get yourself to a store or a physical showroom to get a direct and total view of the product you want. Once you are satisfied with the products physical features and have handled it and interacted with it enough to be sure about buying it, you then go online and do some competitive research, get a price-comparison and also get some first-hand feedback from friends in your social circles about the product. Satisfied on all fronts, you then buy online availing the best deals you can get.
Showrooming is not only getting to be very popular as a way of shopping, many customers are actually doing the competitive research and price-comparing via their mobile smartphones, standing in that very store and using the stores free wi-fi. This is making retailers extremely nervous that having got a customer right to their store, they may stand a chance of losing the customer at the very final stage of his buying decision to the competitive product he is viewing on his mobile!
It is no wonder then that a lot of retailers like Adidas are now seriously experimenting with bringing rich online experiences into their physical stores so that the customers can now use their mobiles to engage digitally with their own products while also physically viewing them. Customers can thus be encouraged to mobile-surf their own websites in an immersive way instead of using their phones to check out competitive products while browsing in-store.
For instance, Adidas now allows digital window shopping where customers can pop virtual products into virtual shopping bags on their phones at the physical store, for later online ordering.
Keeping the mobile-savvy customer away from competitive pulls and totally engaged with their own products while in their stores is the challenge that retailers are trying hard to work around.
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