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Tactics in the Showrooming War Retailers can deal effectively with showroomers by promoting a fair price image and engaging productively with smartphone users. Here are some additional tactics retailers are using to blunt the showrooming impact: • Offer services that are unavailable online • Bundle items. "Complete solution" packages can't be easily priced online • Curate your assortments; include unique items that cannot be found easily online • Offer branded merchandise that can't be price-matched • Choose suppliers carefully. Carry merchandise from those who do not also supply online vendors • Use mobile-transaction devices. Replace cash registers with tablets that allow the staff to interact with customers and provide immediate merchandise information • Create your own mobile app that assists customers and controls the online experience • Keep asking: What do shoppers want that they cannot get online? in the marketplace so you can converse productively with a skilled showroomer. Says Dion: "You need to have your homework done or you are dead in the water." Second, make sure that those associates who approach showroomers possess the requisite people skills. You probably already have a good idea if you are able 46 August 2013 | beautystorebusiness.com to engage productively with a stranger. It may be that your store personnel do not. Having the wrong people engage showroomers is a recipe for disaster. You can end up with negative conversations that irritate customers. "First look at the quality of your staff," suggests Lisle Davies, partner at The Grayson Co. (thegraysoncompany. com) a New York City-based consulting firm. "Some store associates are fantastic and others are extremely average." Only those top-performing associates should be asked to engage with the smartphone-using public. It's a different story, adds Davies, if a customer approaches a store associate with a question about price. In that case most employees are on firm ground interacting in a way that communicates the value of the store's services, polices or bundled merchandise offerings. Providing your associates with training in this area may be the best thing you can do. "Invest in your people," says Dion. "If there is a 5% to 10% difference in price between a store and online item, your people can still make the consumer feel there is value in a store transaction." Keeping perspective Maybe showrooming is becoming a dominant force in retailing, but the practice also highlights the value of a brick-and-mortar store: Without it, after all, a showroomer would have no place to showroom. "In a few years, maybe 14% of all sales will be mobile," says Dion. "But that means 86% will still be brick and mortar." Making that brick-and-mortar presence pay off in an electronic age is the challenge. A successful response requires competitive pricing and a productive engagement with showroomers. "Retailers have to rethink the way they do business these days," says Fitzpatrick. "Showrooming will only continue to grow. It's not going away." ■ Phillip M. Perry is a New York City-based freelance writer.