What is webrooming? Why do we do it? How is it different from showrooming?

Update date:2024.03.21 Column

Webrooming refers to the consumer behavior of first gathering information about a product on the Internet, then going to a physical store to purchase the product in person.

table of contents

Webrooming and Showrooming
Why Webrooming?
The impact of webrooming
Examples of webrooming countermeasures
Consumer Behavior and Omnichannel
Summary
- Other Marketing Terms Explained

Webrooming and Showrooming

There is a concept called showrooming, which is the opposite of webrooming as a consumer behavior, but this term is relatively better known. Showrooming refers to the consumer behavior of gathering information such as checking the actual product in a physical store, and then ultimately purchasing the product through online shopping. Products that are likely to be the target of showrooming are home appliances, which are bulky and difficult to carry home, and can be easily compared in price by searching by model number on the Internet, and online shopping often has cheaper prices, which is why it is said that the rate of showrooming experience is high.

As businesses have taken measures to combat this type of showrooming, a consumer behavior known as webrooming has recently come to the forefront, where consumers research products on the internet and then purchase them in a physical store.

Why Webrooming?

So why do consumers go to a physical store to buy products when they can buy them online from the comfort of their own home? It is true that online shopping has some advantages over online shopping, such as the ease of purchasing. However, many consumers also value the convenience of physical stores, such as going to a physical store where they can get the product immediately because it takes time for the product to arrive when buying online, or going to a physical store because buying online is more expensive due to shipping costs.

As such, purchasing online and purchasing in a physical store each have their advantages and disadvantages, so consumers can choose the purchasing method that best suits their purpose.

So showrooming is not going to drive brick-and-mortar retail out of business, as was once thought, and webrooming is not just an isolated phenomenon seen by a small minority of users.

The impact of webrooming

So how much influence does webrooming have? For example, according to a 2014 survey on the consumption behavior of "omni-channel" consumers conducted by online advertising agency OPT, Inc., 37.9% of consumers "see the actual product and hear an explanation in a store, then purchase the product on a shopping site at a later date."

Meanwhile, when it comes to user purchasing behavior in the same home appliance category, 42.9% answered "I check the products on sale on the website before going to the store," and 49.2% answered "I compare products from each brand on the Internet, decide which product to buy, and then go to the store." This survey shows that consumers are webrooming to the same extent or even more than they are showrooming.(Opt conducts survey on consumer behavior of omni-channel consumers)

Examples of webrooming countermeasures

So what kind of measures can be taken against the consumer behavior known as webrooming? For example, a company that has exclusively operated online mail order businesses may open up physical stores to attract customers who would prefer to make purchases in-store. One example of a company that went from exclusively online to opening physical stores is Surugaya. Surugaya, which sells doujinshi and figurines online, originally only sold online, but after opening a store in Takatsuki in 2015, it has been actively expanding its physical stores across Japan, including Akihabara and Nihonbashi.

There are also cases where companies want to ensure that users are not left behind from the process of gathering information online to the stage of purchasing at a physical store. Yodobashi Camera is an example of a company that pursues user convenience and captures customers, regardless of whether they are online or in person. Yodobashi Camera offers a service where you can purchase products online and pick them up immediately at the store of your choice, and because the same point card is used for both online shopping and physical stores, customers can receive points back regardless of where they make their purchase, preventing them from switching to other stores at the purchasing stage.

Consumer Behavior and Omnichannel

Taking measures against webrooming like this is important for retail businesses, and both webrooming and showrooming measures can be explained with the keyword "omni-channel."

Omnichannel refers to any channel that includes physical stores, online shopping, social media, television, direct mail, and more.A strategy to secure various sales channels and integrate them into oneA similar concept is multi-channel, but multi-channel only refers to securing a sales channel, while omni-channel emphasizes the coordination of each sales channel.

For example, a user may go to a physical store to purchase a product but find that it is out of stock, so they can pay at the store and have the product sent to them later from the online shopping site, or they may order online but want to use it immediately and pick it up at the store. Omnichannel is a state in which consumers can use services without feeling stressed by the differences between sales channels.

Both measures against webrooming and showrooming can be said to be part of the omni-channel movement in that they strengthen the connection between the online and real worlds, allowing consumers to use services without inconvenience.

Summary

Showrooming has been gaining attention due to sluggish sales at retail stores and the rapid growth of mail-order companies, but webrooming measures, such as how to use the Internet to attract customers to brick-and-mortar stores, are also an important issue for businesses. Furthermore, both webrooming and showrooming measures are essentially part of the omnichannelization that eliminates the stress caused by the difference between the Internet and the real world.