Identify Webroom Customers For the Holidays

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By: Cindy Wendland

Online shopping and smartphones have changed the face of retail. Shoppers have graduated from years of online shopping and now yearn for product touch and feel. Shoppers are coming back to the stores to get a tactile experience. These customers are great to have and can make a huge impact on holiday sales if you understand the opportunity they offer.

Amazon recently opened their own brick-and-mortar store. Perhaps they are recognizing the importance of webrooming, which is the practice of researching items online and then purchasing them in-store. Prior to this trend, customers were more often viewing the product in-store, then going home and ordering online. The exciting change for retailers is that more people want to be in the store making their purchases. It is important to remember that these customers have already done their research, so salespeople need to be as well informed on product knowledge as possible. In addition, retailers need to be alert to competitor prices and be willing to offer price matching to keep the sale in their store.

The webroom customer can be one of your best customers considering how likely this customer is to buy the product. This shopper has already invested significantly in their purchase. They first identified a product of interest. They researched the product online. They then invested time and effort to go to the store to see the product and touch it. All that is required now to earn the sale at retail is to have the product on the shelf in great condition. The salesperson can help seal the deal by assisting in locating the product in store and offering a few more tidbits of product knowledge and benefits. The customer has done the bulk of the work. The salesperson just needs to ask enough questions to determine that this is a webroom customer and close the sale. Happy Webroom Holidays!

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About the Author

Cindy Wendland has a background in marketing and finance. She is the creative director for an online men's health magazine, BrainBrawnBody.com, and she gets to write their leisure/travel blog. She is also a web designer helping her clients with online community engagement, websitesbywendland.com. Prior to her web years, she worked in pharmacy consulting.

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