Washington: Not long ago, the sight of shoppers swiping and typing on their smartphones at the mall was the stuff of retailers’ nightmares. The logic was that these people were doing what is known in the industry as “showrooming” — browsing the stores to touch and test a product, but buying the item online through another retailer where they could get better prices.
But smartphones and other web-enabled gadgets are no longer seen as a major threat of brick-and-mortar stores, and a new study by Deloitte helps illustrate why. Deloitte’s consulting arm surveyed thousands of shoppers and found that those using digital devices while they shop in physical stores go from browsing to buying at a 20 per cent higher rate than other shoppers.
One-third of them also end up spending more in the store because of their digital interactions than they might have otherwise, according to the study.
The findings offer a simple message to brick-and-mortar retailers: Gadgets aren’t the enemy. In fact, with a great mobile site or app, your customer’s smartphone could be one of your most powerful tools for boosting in-store sales.
Deloitte found in the survey that shoppers aren’t even using their mobile devices for price comparisons as much anymore. This suggests that in-store smartphone use is becoming more sophisticated:
Instead of comparing prices, perhaps shoppers are reading product reviews, looking for inspiration on how to style a certain clothing item, or pulling up the map of a large store to find their way around. In these newer scenarios, the phone is acting as something of a digital sales associate.
The study looked at shoppers’ tech use outside of stores too and found that the time we spend online has an increasingly large influence on what we buy inside a shop — it shaped some 49 per cent of in-store purchases in 2014. That could mean someone was inspired by browsing Pinterest for ideas on how to wear a midi skirt, or by reading news about the latest smartphone, or by visiting a retailer’s web site to see whether it carries mid-century-modern end tables.
The percentage of these “digitally influenced” purchases, as Deloitte calls them, is growing quickly. They went from making up 14 per cent to nearly 50 per cent of in-store sales in only two years.
Deloitte’s study adds to a growing body of research that says consumers today are more knowledgeable than ever. Shoppers are doing copious research, whether before they set foot in a shop or while they’re there. As a result, they often know exactly what they want, and they are less vulnerable to the siren call of the impulse buy.
This can present some challenges for retailers: It’s harder to steer shoppers to buy items that aren’t on their shopping lists, which means sellers have to train sales associates to be able to go toe-to-toe with these ultra-prepared shoppers.
But the behaviour change can benefit stores. At J.C. Penney, for example, store traffic is down, but more shoppers who enter end up making purchases. That likely means that people are making fewer trips to the store but still buying plenty — they’re just doing it in a more planned, efficient pattern.
