An Omnichannel Truce Between Online and Physical Retail

The objectives of online and physical retail stores have run counter to each other for long enough. It's time to call a truce. The initial trigger for this tension was the emergence of "showrooming," behavior that retailers feared breaks the designed value of physical retail stores.

Showrooming is actually not the enemy for most retailers. A recent study showed that 88 percent of consumers had performed "webrooming" (i.e., researching a product online before coming to a store to buy it), compared to 76 percent who had showroomed. That's great news for retailers who are prepared to support educated consumers who are primed to purchase.