According to a recent article in USA Today, more than two-thirds of shoppers can be considered omnichannel consumers, according to PWC's holiday shopping forecast. These shoppers research products and make purchases using a combination of technology, online platforms and physical stores.
The number of shoppers who make purchases in-store after researching an item using a smartphone has surged to 41%, while the number of “showroomers” who research a product in one physical store and buy from another online retailer has decreased from 37% to 28%. The symbiosis of both online and in-store shopping habits of an average US consumer has tilted slightly in favor of the traditional brick-and-mortar experience, GFK’s latest global consumer study on shopping FutureBuy finds.
A Small business Trends survey reported that 75 percent of men and 63 percent of women webroom, compared to 53 percent of men and 40 percent of women who showroom. and even more astonishingly 47 percent don’t want to pay for shipping, 46 percent want to see and touch a product before buying it and 42 percent want to check in-store availability online - then go to the store so they don’t waste a trip.
This holiday season take the products in stock and launch a webrooming site using the retailcloud web deploy wizard in under 5 minutes, that way your customers can see what you have in stock, how much you have in stock and place orders for instore pick up. You will receive an email for each order or a receipt can be printed out in store on any IP printer. Stock levels are constantly updated so as items sell in the store the updated inventory levels are reflected on your online site.
Its a quick, easy and inexpensive way to reach more customers and better serve your existing customers. We can also scour the web for images and descriptions on product with valid UPC codes and load those for you so you don't have to. Additionally, you can activate the recommendation engine so that customers can get product recommendations based on their in-store history.
Its quick, its simple and its another way that retailcloud is developing solutions to drive more traffic to your store. Email your rep or contact us on chat to get started.
