Brick-and-mortar retailers face increasing challenges from showrooming, with in-store mobile use expected to rise significantly. The document outlines five strategies to counter online competition: empowering staff with information, using showrooming as engagement opportunities, gathering customer data, creating instant checkout systems, and offering speedy home delivery options. Embracing the blend of online and offline experiences will position retail stores favorably in the evolving market landscape.

1. to Keep Retail
Customers Loyal
in the Age of Showrooming
Strategies For Brick-and-Mortar Retailers
to Fight Online Competition
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 1

2. •••
Brick and mortar retailers have been facing serious challenges lately
of U.S. mobile consumers
are expected to use their
phone while shopping in-store
in the 2012 holiday season.
Source: JiWire Mobile Audience Insights 2012 © faberNovel 2012 ••• 2

3. •••
Brick and mortar retailers have been facing serious challenges lately
The number of U.S. shoppers
engaging in showrooming is
expected to increase 134%
from 2011 to 2012, influencing
$1.7 billion in retail sales
Source: IDC Retail Insights Survey 2012 © faberNovel 2012 ••• 3

4. •••
Retailers are well aware of the danger they are facing
of physical retailers expect to be affected by
showrooming in 2012
...but only have a strategy in place to combat it
Source: Edgell Knowledge Network/eBay Local © faberNovel 2012 ••• 4

5. •••
The fact is this: the barrier between online and offline retail has collapsed
Amazon and other e-retailers are exploiting this fact to press their advantage over
their offline competitors.
Lower overhead costs Instant access to
comparisons
Broader inventory Frictionless payment Quick, convenient delivery
But this collapse goes both ways – and it can be used to the physical store’s
advantage just as easily as it can be used to Amazon’s.
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 5

6. With that in mind, here are
five ways for brick-and-
mortar retailers to fight back
against e-commerce
competitors and keep
customers in their stores…

7. 1
Give your staff
the answer to
every question
a customer
could ask
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 7

8. •••
1. Give your staff the answer to every question a customer could ask
Recommendation:
Empower your employees with mobile tools that let
them quickly and easily access information on every
product in your store
In online stores, answers to customers’ questions
are always just a click away.
By comparison, store employees often come off as
knowing very little about the items they sell.
Today’s brick-and-mortar stores can – and should –
be just like online stores: full of all the information
necessary to help customers make informed
decisions.
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 8

9. •••
Case Study: Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters is currently replacing all cash
registers with iPads and giving all employees
an iPod Touch to create total product
awareness.
The devices cost 1/5 as much as traditional point-of-
sale systems, and can be turned toward the
customer to share information about products as well
as subscribe to newsletters.
“Once we make sure this iPad works... all stores will be
equipped with iPod touches and iPads.”
Calvin Hollinger
- CEO
Source: RetailWire, CBS News © faberNovel 2012 ••• 9

10. 2
Use
showrooming
as an opportunity
to engage the
customer
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 10

11. •••
2. Use showrooming as an opportunity to engage the customer
Recommendation:
Give your employees the information they need to
intelligently engage customers around competing
offers
Comparison shopping via mobile
device is just that – a comparison
between offers. There’s no reason
your offer should not come out on top,
especially with the home-field
advantage.
Give employees tools for engaging
customers on competing offers and
showing them why your offer is better
in the big picture (and of course your
offer does need to be better in the big
picture...).
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 11

12. •••
Case Study: Best Buy
Best Buy, the 2011 poster child for
showrooming, recently announced they were
embracing it as a part of their strategy for
getting business back on track.
Their reasoning? Anything that brings live
customers into their stores can’t be all bad.
Their plan calls for converting showroomers from
browsers into buyers through online price-matching
incentives and better-trained employees.
“Once customers are in our stores, they’re ours to lose.”
Hubert Joly
- CEO
Source: RetailWire, CBS News © faberNovel 2012 ••• 12

13. 3
Better serve
your customer
by gathering
hard data about
what they want
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 13

14. •••
3. Better serve your customer by gathering hard data about what they want
Recommendation:
Build in-store analytics tools to radically improve
intelligence on shoppers’ desires and behaviors
Online retailers know a lot about what their
customers like – because they collect data on
them with every click.
But the savvy physical retailer can develop
even more refined analytics than websites,
taking advantage of the customer’s physical
presence to collect better, more nuanced
data.
You can then use that data to give your
customers more of what they want.
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 14

15. •••
Case Study: American Apparel
In 2010 American Apparel began
experimenting with in-store analytics with
analytics startup RetailNext, which monitors
movement through stores to produce up to
10,000 data points per customer
They liked the solution so much that it’s now in over half
of American Apparel stores – and they're moving as fast
as they can to get it into the rest.
“Our role as the tech team is to... provide operations with
everything they need to make an impact on conversion
with minimal effort.”
Stacey Shulman
- CTO
Source: RetailWire, CBS News © faberNovel 2012 ••• 15

16. 4
Eliminate lines
and let your
customers
check out
instantly
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 16

17. •••
4. Eliminate lines and let your customers check out instantly
Recommendation:
Create a checkout system that lets customers
complete a purchase instantly anywhere in the store
Shoppers have grown used to one-click
shopping from any device online. They
have every right to expect similar
convenience when they decide to shop
offline.
Eliminate the biggest source of POS
friction – the cash register – and allow
employees (or even customers
themselves!) to swipe a card anywhere
in the store.
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 17

18. •••
Case Study: Walmart
Wal-Mart is experimenting with a Scan & Go
iPhone app that allows shoppers to scan items
themselves and pay at special self-service
kiosks located throughout the store.
The company reports that it can save $12 million for
every second it can shave off the typical checkout
process.
“They can change my purchasing decision right there on the spot,
which has never been done before in the history of retail in a brick-
and-mortar store.”
Ryan Taft
- OnSpot Social
Source: RetailWire, CBS News © faberNovel 2012 ••• 18

19. 5
Give your
customers
a speedy home
delivery option
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 19

20. •••
5. Give your customers a speedy home delivery option
Recommendation:
Offer courier services that leverage stores’ proximity
to the customer to give better home delivery than
even the web can provide
Online shoppers love the convenience
of having purchases delivered straight
to their door. But distant distribution
centers for online stores can mean long
shipping times.
Retail stores near residential areas can
fill this missing link and beat online
retailers hands-down – combining the
in-store shopping experience with the
convenience of immediate delivery.
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 20

21. •••
Case Study: Macy’s
Clothing retailer Macy’s recently partnered
with eBay to try out their new courier system
eBay Now. The service promises to deliver
products “from your phone to your door in
about an hour.”
The system, which has been in beta in San Francisco
for a few months, went live in New York City over the
Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
For a $5.00 fee, a courier will deliver your purchase
directly to your home (or wherever else you need it) by
car, bike or even by foot.
Source: RetailWire, CBS News © faberNovel 2012 ••• 21

22. •••
The future of retail is an online-offline continuum. Make it work for you.
Retail will look very different in the future than it did in the past.
And we are already moving rapidly towards this vision.
But these changes need not be feared by brick-and-mortar retailers. Those that embrace opportunities to
merge the best of online and offline retail into a seamless, unified shopping experience will come out as the
top players in a new generation of retail stores.
© faberNovel 2012 ••• 22

23. •••
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© faberNovel 2012 ••• 23