Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
No Codes Barred
September 13,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on September 2012
A perfect storm of advancing mobile technologyand consumers ever-increasing ability to access anything and everything shopping-related via their smartphone or tablet devicemakes showrooming a critical trend retailers face in their fight for business.
Even if you havent heard the trend defined as showrooming, youre likely familiar with the concept: Someone visits your showroom floor, scans a QR or manufacturers SKU codeand looks for a better price online.
A BIG ISSUE
Showrooming is getting a lot more attention from clients of furniture retailing Web site specialist Furnituredealer.net. Founder Andy Bernstein is counting on DoBizzBuzzwhich can serve retailers as a social-network-style platform connecting products to specific storesto help.
Showroomings been a big issue for us the past several months, and we think DoBizzBuzz addresses all three points in the marketplacethe retailer, the manufacturer and the consumer, he said. It starts as a strategy to help the manufacturer. The biggest problem we see is making it so local stores have a chance. They need to get found when people are looking for product.
Mobile devices have compounded the same things that worried retailers about the Internet in the first placeconsumers shopping their store and buying elsewhereand retailers
have to broaden their online outlook
in response.
Our attitude used to be, How do we make it as easy as possible for a retailer to have a Web presenceto get found online, and to have a Web site that meets consumer expectations of what a site should offer?, Bernstein noted. They have to extend the same effort to mobile (technology).
HERE TO STAY
The emergence of mobile commerce and its attendant issues are pretty much out of retailers hands, according to The State of Retailing Online 2012: Mobile Marketing, a recent report conducted by Forrester Research for Shop.org.
Phone and tablet commerce is growing rapidly, primarily due to consumer demand rather than specific effort on the part of retailers to actively drive traffic to those devices, the report said. Anecdotally, many large multi-channel retailers say that a double-digit percent of daily traffic comes from both smartphones and tablets, even though many of these companies to date have invested little in mobile or tablet-specific content.
With rapidly growing consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets and the promise of mobile success, retailers are eager to learn more about the channels, but what efforts to make and where to invest are still questions without clear answers.
The report also said retailers look to metrics such as revenue to measure their mobile success, but with mobile-generated revenue still in single digits, that inhibits their willingness to invest in richer programs.
Retailers instead should focus on the metrics that make sense for smartphones versus tablets and that are more likely to reflect how consumers are likely to use each device type, the report suggested. For example, measuring consumer engagement on smartphones in terms of QR code downloads, product searches, and app downloads will more accurately reflect how consumers use the smartphone as part of the shopping process.
By contrast, the tablet device is quickly rivaling the desktop Web experience, and thus, more standard e-commerce metrics (e.g., average order value, conversion) still make sense for this platform.
Another problem the report found is that retailers have not figured out the most compelling mobile device features to offer.
Across the board, most retailers simply replicate much of their existing site functionality on mobile and tablet devices, according to the report. While there are some nuances in execution (e.g., payment options, barcode scanning capabilities), the most common features that are garnering investment this year are product and price information, customer ratings and reviews, and store location information.
The report cited Starbucks as an example of a retailer that created customized solutions for very specific cases: Starbucks, for instance, is arguably one of the more successful mobile retail executions, offering customers an app that has become very popular and primarily focuses on mobile payments that are synchronized with the companys loyalty program.
EMBRACING THE CHALLENGE
Theres not much sense in fighting showrooming, said Kevin Doran, vice president and co-owner, R&A Marketing, Columbus, Ohio.
Showrooming is a big thing for any retailer that has a bar code or manufacturers SKU number in the showroom, and its really just the world we live in now, he said. Ninety-two percent of Americans use a cell phone every day. One-hundred and ten million access Web sites and social networks online with their phones. Eighteen percent of mobile users bank online. One-fifth of smart phone users make purchases on their mobile devices. If your Web sites and social media arent mobile-friendly, that customer is not going to participate.
Let them shop how they want to. How can you afford to potentially lose that customer? Everyone says with furniture, you have to feel and sit. Well, theyre going to your showroom to feel and sit, and going back home and price-shopping you; or, at 9 oclock that night theyre ready to buy online from you and they cant.
Embrace showrooming, said Sev Ritchie, executive vice president of Atlanta-based consultant Web4Retail. He believes a customer checking prices online in your store means that customers serious about purchasing.
If theyre on the floor and say, I see this product for this price somewhere else, ask Whats the shipping cost? he said. Embrace it, its definitely a buying signal. In most cases, the prices theyre pulling are off the major online stores. If they have a problem there, whos going to fix or service that?
If it comes down to a reasonable discussion with a reasonable person, I think you can overcome showrooming.
Customers are going to get on their smart phone no matter what you do, but retailers can take proactive steps.
The key is to try to keep them in your interactive environment instead of going straight to Google or Ikeas Web site, Doran said. Use POP with QR codes that take them to your own Facebook Page, Pinterest site or Twitter for a discount offer.
Make their first mobile move to your online environment instead of Google, Ikea or another store. Make sure they can find ways to get discounts, price quotes, design tips or how to deal with a salesperson. Let them do what theyre already doing, but have them do it with you.
How does your stores online presence deal with showrooming?
Showing a sofa/loveseat from a particular manufacturer on your site? Give it a name of your own, suggests Ritchie.
If we put a (vendor name) out there, were asking to get showroomed, he said. By putting your name on it, its simple and easy for the consumer to pull the trigger, because if they Google it, theyll come right back to your site. HFB