Editor's Note: Reverse Showrooming is the Newest Retail Trend

One of the biggest threats to brick-and-mortar retailers is "showrooming," a practice whereby consumers walk into a store with a smartphone to look at merchandise and then — after making use of the expertise of the store's associates — ultimately make their purchases online from a competitor at a lower price. Retailers are increasingly battling back against showrooming by mimicking the practice — reverse showrooming, if you will. They're encouraging shoppers to whip out their smartphones right in store aisles, but to buy online from them.

Indeed, retailers have rolled out mobile apps, mobile websites and online features that operate a lot like showrooming. The big difference is these tools drive sales back to the physical store or its website, not to a competitor such as Amazon.com. Here are some examples of how retailers are fighting back against showrooming:

• Wal-Mart recently added an "in-store mode" to its iPhone app. When shoppers launch the app in a Wal-Mart store, they're prompted to enter the mode, which allows them to scan product barcodes for price checks, customer reviews and more information about the product. It also lets shoppers access the latest ads, discounts and QR codes, which may lower the price listed in-store.
• Target formed a partnership earlier this year with shopkick, a mobile app that enables consumers to accumulate points, or "kicks," by scanning merchandise in-store. Kicks can be traded in for gift cards, iTunes downloads and other goodies, with the hope that shoppers who scan goods are more likely to buy those goods.
• Best Buy is combating showrooming by allowing consumers to shop online in its stores if they don't have a mobile device handy. Store associates and Geek Squad workers are being equipped with tablets and other devices so they can help shoppers find more details on products and look up reviews.

Retailers can also fight back against showrooming via a site called Shop My Label, which enables them to incentivize shoppers to scan products in their stores to promote sales of those products to others who aren't in-store. Here's how it works: First, retailers register with Shop My Label. (The company has currently signed 32 retail partners, including Saks, Delia's, Avenue and Armani Exchange.) Then consumers open a free account to create online shops, selecting items from participating retailers to "stock" their shops. The shop owner then shares information about their stores with their friends through their social networks. When their friends or anyone else buys from their online shops — payment and free shipping included — they receive up to a 10 percent commission on each sale.

In the future, Shop My Label will incentivize users to scan items in brick-and-mortar stores, which will be added to their online collections. When a shopper sees something desirable in a brick-and-mortar store, instead of scanning it and buying it on Amazon, they can scan it and put it up for sale in one of their online stores so their friends can buy it.

Have you implemented any reverse showrooming techniques? If so, please let me know about them by dropping me a line at mcampanelli@napco.com.

ROI News
Congratulations goes to Joe Keenan, who was recently named Retail Online Integration's new managing editor. Joe, formerly senior editor, has been with ROI before it was ROI (the magazine was originally called Catalog Success), and has become an expert in the cross-channel retail industry. His journalistic expertise, great writing, excellent editing skills and all-around professionalism have made Catalog Success and ROI two great reads for more than five years. Congratulate Joe by dropping him a line at jkeenan@napco.com.

Congratulations also goes to Caitlin Sullivan, our new online content editor. Caitlin, a recent graduate of Temple University who majored in journalism and communications, began working for Retail Online Integration in April and has already helped improve our daily e-newsletter, ROI Report, by adding new and interesting content to it. Caitlin has also set up ROI's Pinterest page, added original videos and podcasts to our website, increased ROI's number of Facebook fans and more. Welcome Caitlin by dropping her a line at csullivan@napco.com.