More Than a Showroom Strategies for Winning Back Online Shoppers

The growing phenomenon of showrooming plagues sales managers and small retailers in ever increasing numbers as technology has evolved to create smarter and more empowered consumers. Showrooming refers to the phenomenon of consumers – or potential consumers - browsing products in a retail store, and then ultimately purchasing online at a lower price through another store. In the age of the Internet, the sight of a customer who will visit a store and use their smartphone to scan the barcode, hoping to find the same item at a cheaper price from a different vendor has become commonplace. Through exhaustive research, the authors of this book investigate this exploding trend and offer strategies, tools, and training approaches that can help to transform showrooming customers into in-store sales.

Offering retail managers and owners deep insight into how they can stem the loss of resources to showrooming, this book, through a close, systematic examination of showrooming, provides insight and understanding of the value added through customer service and expert salesperson knowledge. Retailers will learn how to implement essential, incremental changes to infuse value in the customer experience and entice significantly improved in-store sales while building core customer relationships and enhancing loyalty.

1. Introduction: What is Showrooming?
2. Today's Customers
3. Reward Systems: Compensation at the Store Level
4. Reward Programs: Loyalty at the Store Level
5. In-Store Wi-Fi: Engaging Showroomers on Their Terms
6. Price Matching: to Match, or Not to Match?
7. No-No's at the Store Level: What NOT to do When Faced with Showrooming
8. Employee Coping Behaviors: Handling the Stresses of Showrooming with Proactive Engagement
9. Customer Service in a Technological World: A Timeless Strategy for a Digital Dilemma
10. Employees as Knowledge Brokers: Understanding How Expertise is Your Ally
Afterward

Daniel G. Bachrach, PhD, is Professor of Management at the Culverhouse College of Commerce of the University of Alabama. Professor Bachrach is editor or coauthor of five books, including Management, 13e; Exploring Management, 5e; Transformative Selling; 10 Don'ts on Your Digital Devices: The Non-Techie's Survival Guide to Cyber Security and Privacy; and The Handbook of Behavioral Operations Management. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in range of top-tier academic outlets, including Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Strategic Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Jessica Ogilvie is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the College of Business at Ohio University where she teaches the Advanced Selling and Sales Management courses. Prior to earning her Ph.D. from The University of Alabama, she received her B.S. in Finance and Economics from The University of Alabama where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in May of 2011 and her M.S. in Marketing from The University of Alabama in May of 2012. She is currently the Director of Research and Academics in The Ralph and Luci Schey Sales Centre at Ohio University.

Adam Rapp, PhD is the Distinguished Professor of Sales in the Department of Marketing at Ohio University. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, Dr. Adam Rapp spent time as a doctoral fellow at the University of Houston, where he researched and taught in the Sales Excellence Institute. Adam is currently the Executive Director of The Ralph and Luci Schey Sales Centre at Ohio University.

Joe Calamusa is currently a Professor of Marketing at The University of Alabama and the UA Sales Program's Managing Director. Joe has over 10 years of sales and sales management experience as the Corporate National Sales Manager for Peco Foods, Inc., a privately held poultry processor. Joe Calamusa started a private label grocery division that blossomed into over $150 million in annual sales to retail giants including Wal-Mart, The Kroger Co., Supervalu Inc., Safeway, Publix, Dollar General, and many others. Joe oversaw a national sales and broker network, and was responsible for the division's strategy, supply chain, development, and profitability. Joe has corporate training and coaching experience within the Consumer Packaged Goods, Health Care, Retail, Media, Industrial Technology, and Municipal segments. He also specializes in small business consulting projects within the Legal, Information Technology and Non-profit fields.