If you’re a high street retailer, it’s pretty irritating when you’ve spent time and effort bringing people into your shop, giving them the sales patter, and closing the deal, only to have them walk out and buy it on the internet. But there’s not much you can do about it. Unless you’re this food store in Brisbane, who has started charging people $5 for “just looking” (to be deducted when you buy something):
The store management writes:
There has been high volume of people who use this store as a reference and then purchase goods elsewhere. These people are unaware our prices are almost the same as the other stores plus we have products simply not available anywhere else. This policy is line with many other clothing, shoe and electronic stores who are also facing the same issue.
But this policy has not gone down well anywhere.
“If customers aren’t buying, the seller needs to figure out why and adapt accordingly,” writes Chris Morran at The Consumerist. “If this store’s prices are truly the best, then maybe it should be offering a price-match guarantee. If it truly offers products that aren’t available elsewhere, then how are these showrooming shoppers buying these items from someone else?”
“It has to be the most misguided strategy we’ve seen for dealing with showrooming,” writes Daily Finance’s Matt Brownell “The goal of any retailer should be to impress customers with competitive pricing and great customer service — not treat their customers with suspicion and hostility from the moment they walk in the door.”