Reverse showrooming prevalence

• According to a report from GetApp, 28.9% of US consumers prefer reverse showrooming, or to research items online and then buy in physical stores. On the other hand, only 7.5% prefer showrooming, or researching products in physical stores first and then buying online.
• Majority of the consumers (53.1%) still prefer shopping online, while 10.5% of US consumers prefer to research and buy products in physical stores.
• About 36.6% of US consumers said they only do 25% of their purchases using reverse showrooming, 32.8% of US consumers do 25%-50% of their purchases using reverse showrooming, and only about 5% of US consumers do 75%-100% of their purchases using reverse showrooming.
• According to a report from GetApp, the products mostly preferred by US consumers for using reverse showrooming are electrical items (15.1%), electronic items (14.3%), clothing (13%), home furnishings (10.9%), and groceries (8.9%).
• According to a report from Oath, preference per generation on using webrooming when purchasing products are 40% of millennials, 35% of Generation X, and 33% of Baby Boomers.

Reverse showrooming growth

• According to a report from Forrester Group, the total US retail sales in 2018 was about $3.7 trillion in multiple categories, where 36% (or about $1.3 trillion of total) was influenced by digital factors via reverse showrooming such as online and mobile advertising, online marketplaces, and mobile search.
• By 2023, 58% of total US retail sales will be influenced by digital factors, wherein consumers first research online and then purchase offline or in-store, also called as reverse showrooming.
• About 31% of the 2018 US total retail sales (about $1.1 trillion of total) was digitally influenced by mobile smartphones which is projected to have 90% shares of digitally influenced sales in 2022. This will grow to about $1.4 trillion in retail sales by 2023, according to a report from Forrester Group.

Consumer reasons for engaging in reverse showrooming

• Consumers want to read customer reviews of products before buying them offline. (49.1% of US consumers)
• Consumers can compare prices across multiple retailers. (29.1% of US consumers)
• Consumers want to take their time on making decisions before buying their products offline. (16.5% of US consumers)
• Consumers want to view their products at a faster pace. (5.2% of US consumers)

Reverse Showrooming - Consumer Journey overview

• The reverse showrooming is also called "webrooming".
• In the US, 69% say they “reverse showroom” looking online before heading to the store to buy.
• About 69% of shoppers who are webrooming or reverse showrooming admit that they are active Reverse Showroomers.

Reverse Showrooming stages

Stage 1: Browsing online on desktop or phone

• Among consumers, 38% start their shopping journey on a phone, while 43% begin on a desktop and end up buying an item in person at a store.
• Around 69% of consumers say they "reverse showroom", or searches online before heading to the store to buy items.
• Consumers still shop in stores most often, but they are searching on their phones beforehand to make sure it's worth the trip.

Stage 2: Interacting on social media

• On Pinterest, 50% of the items catch the user's attention while they were casually browsing it on a stranger's board (24%), on a friend's board (19%), and on a retailer's board (7%).
• There are 21% of users who had bought an item in a store after pinning, repinning, or liking the item on the site.
• Consumers tend to look at multiple websites, reviews, blog posts or forums to determine which items best fit their needs. Once the product has been fully researched, the consumer will complete the purchase in a physical store.

Stage 3: Further research and comparison between brand websites

•  88% of webrooming internet users and shoppers compare online prices between different stores before making a purchase decision.
• Among the consumers who participate in webrooming or reverse showrooming, 77% says they do this to find the lowest price, while 72% says to compare the products, and 71% says to conduct research.
• 90% of the consumer's buying decision is influenced by online reviews.

Stage 4: Buying in-store

• The top reasons why consumers prefer to webroom and buy in-store products are: they do not want to pay for the shipping (47%), they do not want to wait for the product to be delivered (23%), they prefer to go to the store to touch the product before they purchase it (46), they would try to ask the store to match a better price they found while during their online search (36%), or they like the option of being able to return the item to the store if needed (37%).
• 85% of shoppers prefer to shop in-store, while 90% of consumers are more likely to buy when helped by a knowledgeable staff member.
• Aside from considering that consumers have already decided about what they want to purchase before they enter in the physical store and have already done their research, they are still looking for instant gratification when they are in store.

Research Strategy:

Home Depot

• Home Depot is one example of retailers that are currently championing reverse showrooming in the US. According to data from Adobe Analytics, Home Depot customers picked up nearly half of their online orders in stores during the holidays in 2018, and a fifth of those customers bought additional items doing so.
• What makes Home Depot unique in this area is that they have remodeled some of their stores in order to create separate pickup areas with lockers so that customers can unlock with an order number or a government identification, and pick up their items.
• Other retailers that champion reverse showrooming by offering this service are Kohl’s which has buy online pick up in store lockers in eight stores, and Macy’s which has similar lockers in five locations.

WALMART

• Walmart champions reverse showrooming with the use of in-store Pickup Towers or kiosks that help customers to quickly grab their online orders. The Pickup Towers which were launched in 2017 in 200 stores, resemble vending machines for online orders. This concept helps customers to save on orders by cutting out last-mile deliveries, since shipping to a store costs Walmart less. When customers do not pay for shipping, they benefit by getting a cheaper price and receive their items faster.
• Walmart has rolled out a total of 1,700 Towers in their stores in the US since launching the pickup towers. Pickup Towers are available to nearly 40% of the U.S. population.
• With customers loving the Pickup Tower service and wanting more, the company is planning to launch new Pickup Towers that can be used to retrieve larger items, and the Towers will therefore feature Pickup Lockers, making it easy for customers to pickup things like new TVs.

TARGET

• Target has championed reverse showrooming with the use of its Drive Up service. This allows customers to place orders online, and then pick up their items at a nearby store without getting out of their car.
• The Drive Up service is popular among parents who have small children, as everyday shopping tends to be difficult for them. Parents with babies have used Drive Up to restock household essentials like diapers. Other Target shoppers use Drive Up to get large and bulky online purchases such as televisions loaded straight into their vehicles.
• Drive Up is a free service where customers use the Target app to place an order and get their items brought out to their car in under two minutes. The service is currently available at more than 1,100 stores.

Best Buy

• Best Buy champions reverse showrooming by providing dedicated parking spaces for customers who buy online and pick up the items in store. This makes it convenient for customers as 70 percent of people in the US live within 15 minutes of a Best Buy store, while millions of others drive past at least one store daily as they go to and from work.
• Best Buy goes even further in championing reverse showrooming in that if a customer's product is available in the store at a lower price when they go to pick it up, the customer's transaction is modified to reflect the lower price.

old navy

• The 2018 holiday season was record-breaking for Old Navy’s buy online pickup in-store orders. Old Navy champions reverse showrooming by partnering with Lyft to offer free, a maximum of $10 off each way, round-trip rides to customers going to their stores to pick up online orders, such as on Dec. 22 and Dec. 15.
• Old Navy enjoys incremental sales where shoppers who go to pick up online orders, end up checking out with much more. Around 15 to 25 percent of online orders for store pick up led to additional in-store purchases for the retailer.