A new survey has revealed that 90% of shoppers have confessed to participating in showrooming. The findings reveal that shoppers are no longer loyal to their favourite retailers and will ditch them in favour of low prices and better convenience – highlighting the need for retailers to constantly monitor their competitors in order to offer the best prices.
The Retail Survey by Squire Sanders, Kantar Retail and the Retail Trust included interviews with consumers, retailers and suppliers about the state of the UK retail industry. The findings reveal that whilst many retailers have addressed the basics of multichannel retailing, few are yet to exploit the potential of a truly integrated approach to foster customer loyalty and improve the shopper’s experience.
While consumers are shopping more online, however, the survey reveals that pureplay retailers should not be complacent as 60% of shoppers prefer to shop at multichannel retailers. The ease of returning products and being able to speak to someone were among the top reasons highlighted.
The report’s key recommendations for high street retailers include:
- Multichannel is the way forward: shoppers don’t shop channels, they shop retailers and categories
- Don’t rely on shoppers to be sentimental: in the quest for value, quality, service and convenience, shoppers will not have loyalty to the high street
- Head off the showrooming threat: 76% of showrooming shoppers defect online for lower prices. Selective price matching will lure shoppers, as will improvements to product assortment. Retailers need to embrace showrooming rather than view it as an issue
- Make the most of bricks and mortar: retailers need to play to their strength of being able to offer greater interactivity
Commenting on the report findings, Bryan Roberts, Retail Insights Director at Kantar Retail said: “Shoppers are relentless in their search for value – both in terms of money and time. The proliferation of choice generated through multichannel, supermarkets and shopping centres, combined with the rampant promiscuity of shoppers, means that the high street is under unparalleled pressure.”
As the report concludes, counteracting the showrooming threat is no easy task as shoppers continue to show a lack of loyalty towards the high street, motivated by lower prices. One of the key recommendations from the survey is for retailers to ‘select a number of prominent competitors to price-match’ and believes the communication of this intention is often a reassurance to shoppers. With sharper pricing and/or selective price matching in place, the threat of showrooming can be quelled.
Price sensitivity and the growing trend towards showrooming mean it’s essential for a retailer to get their pricing right – highlighting the importance of competitor price monitoring tools such as Profitero. To ensure you are offering the best value to today’s price sensitive shoppers, email us at sales@profitero.com to discover how we can help you increase sales.
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About Profitero
Pricing intelligence company Profitero provides retailers with actionable price intelligence data, monitoring over 50 million products across 4,000 eCommerce retailers every day, observing pricing, promotions and stock availability. We work with the world’s leading retailers, enabling them to acquire new customers and grow profit margins by monitoring and responding to changes in competitor pricing and promotional activity as they happen. For more information on Profitero price intelligence and competitor monitoring, visit www.profitero.com or email sales@profitero.com