The Value of Knowing Your Customer

Brick-and-mortar stores fret about the growth of showrooming — the relatively new practice of looking at a product in-store and then ordering it online (usually for a lower price). Some brick-and-mortar retailers have taken a Draconian approach of trying to ban cellphone use in-store, or even creating "unique" products with different UPCs than those that appear in online stores. Shoppers will always find a way around these practices, and often the response is to stop coming to the store at all.