Showrooming Customers and the Future of Online Price Matching

Target's expansion of its online price-matching policy is clearly a move to combat showrooming and, frankly, to survive. With the recent travails of retailers such as Circuit City, Best Buy and others, Target is doing what it can to attract, or at least retain, customers.

Although sales during Target's 2012 holiday test of the online price-match policy weren't stellar, the retailer's expanded and refined policy promises to be permanent. Although this is a move in the right direction, a look into the details of Target's policy shows that it's primarily a PR move to make its customers feel more comfortable buying from the retailer instead of shopping around. Here are some of the key factors that support that opinion: