[wpaudio url=”https://media.shellypalmer.com/wp-content/images/usrn/120403_SHELLYPALMER_GEN_BED.mp3″ text=”Click to play … ” dl=”0″]
Best Buy recently announced that is will be closing 50 of its 1,450 US stores and replacing them with 100 mobile locations. One of the biggest reasons is showrooming. What’s showrooming? It’s where you go to a store, like Best Buy, look around the showroom, talk to salespeople, then use your smartphone or computer to purchase the item from an online retailer at a lower price. It started a while back when people just copied down models numbers and went home to find items online, but now, with 4G smartphones, you can make the purchase right from inside the store – it’s costing big retailers a lot of sales. Price comparison apps like Amazon Price Check let you take a picture of the barcode in a store and just click to buy the item on Amazon. Visit shellypalmer.com and check out my article called Transparency vs. Information Asymmetry. It will help you understand how showrooming will affect your business.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.