The global retail market is estimated to have grown from $28,846.57 billion in 2023 to $31,310.6 billion in 2024, growing at 8.5 per cent year on year. Meanwhile, a key component of this market, retail e-commerce sales swelled up from $1.34 trillion in 2014 to $6.3 trillion in 2024 at a CAGR of 16.7 per cent, and is further expected to touch $8 trillion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.3 per cent. With convergence of both offline and online retail, the global retail has witnessed many new trends, including the shopping behaviours of showrooming and webrooming.

Evolution of Retail
In its primitive form, retail consisted of mom-and-pop stores or local flea markets that provided a limited range of products to consumers leading simple lives. Over the past hundred years, as the portfolio of products and services expanded due to increasing consumer demand, the global retail market witnessed the emergence of multiple retail formats offering a much wider selection. By the end of the last century, retail had evolved into numerous companies that became the face of modern retail businesses, operating brick-and-mortar stores in a more organised and professional manner.

With the advent of the internet and the World Wide Web, which brought the world closer and redefined shopping, a new form of retail emerged—e-retail, or retail conducted through electronic mediums. This stage in retail evolution was marked by the rise of shopping websites, allowing consumers to purchase products with a simple click from the comfort of their homes or offices. Recognising the immense potential of online shopping, retailers worldwide launched their own shopping (brand) websites to reach consumers across diverse geographies. In addition to their physical stores, they embraced online retail as a complementary channel. Alongside brand-specific sites, online marketplaces also emerged, offering multiple brands across various categories, further revolutionising retail.

The introduction of smartphones and shopping apps gave online shopping an additional boost, making it more convenient, quick, and informative. The ability to shop both offline and online led to the rise of multi-channel retailing. Over time, multi-channel retailers integrated their offline and online channels to provide a seamless shopping experience, transforming into omnichannel retailers.

One of the key services in omnichannel retailing is Click & Collect, or BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store), which allows shoppers to order products online after checking their features and prices, and then collect or return/exchange them at a physical store. The reverse—browsing online and purchasing in-store—is also a feature of omnichannel retailing. This enabled shoppers to research extensively before making a final purchase, leveraging the strengths of both physical stores and online shopping platforms.

As a result, two distinct shopping behaviours have emerged. One involves consumers browsing and experiencing a product in-store, then checking for the best available price online before making a final purchase—known as ‘showrooming’. The other involves consumers researching a product online, gathering information about its features, deals, and prices, and then purchasing it in-store after physically assessing it—referred to as ‘webrooming’. These shopping behaviours have intensified in recent years and are now widely recognised as key consumer trends in the retail industry.

E-commerce – Key Facilitator
Both trends—showrooming and webrooming—emerged because of e-commerce, which proved to be a boon for both consumers as well as retailers. In e-commerce, consumers find a comfortable and cost-effective shopping option that is as easy as click of a button besides saving their time and money in travelling to a store for shopping, while retailers can save investment in setting up and operating a physical store to display and sell their products.

In its initial stages, e-commerce faced a significant challenge— consumers’ apprehension about shopping from a faceless virtual platform, initially limited to selective products such as books. However, in its current form, e-commerce has become more advanced and evolved, playing an integral role in daily life with a robust, well-segmented, and highly targeted product range that offers virtually anything a consumer desires.

The online shopping boom accelerated with the arrival of COVID-19 in the early part of this decade. With ample time at home, consumers explored online shopping and its many benefits. During the stay-at-home phase, they developed a habit of thoroughly researching products before making a purchase. When markets reopened, they extended their research to physical stores as well, making shopping a more comprehensive and well-informed activity.

Today, online and offline shopping are no longer mutually exclusive, allowing savvy consumers to become more informed and strategic in their purchasing decisions. This has led to the rise of two distinct shopping behaviours—showrooming and webrooming.

New Trends
While showrooming is a shopping behaviour wherein consumer visits store to touch and feel the product but opts to purchase it online, mostly at a lower price, webrooming involves shopper researching online, reading reviews, and comparing prices to make an informed decision before purchasing the product from a physical store. Showrooming is rooted in the fact that many consumers still prefer to see and touch the merchandise which they want to buy, turning a store into a showroom that displays products for them. On other hand, webrooming is caused by an urge to gather all product-related information prior to its physical purchase in-person. A study by UK’s PushOn explains the reason behind showrooming trend. It revealed that 81 per cent of UK consumers believe brick-and-mortar shops are vital to the shopping experience, while 70 per cent enjoy the full experience of going in-store to browse, especially when making larger, more expensive purchases. When it comes to fashion, 62 per cent of consumers still prefer to try on clothes in-store, rather than buy them online, so they can get a real feel of how they will look and fit.

Showrooming
In its earlier stages, showrooming was censured for eating into retailers’ profits. Today, retailers are wholeheartedly accepting showrooming in order to save money, attract younger shoppers, and focus on the customer experience instead of just the bottom line. Now they are leaning into the trend and capitalising on it. They have evolved and learnt how to convert their pain-points into opportunities for their retail stores and boost their business in the process. This is because showrooming may not necessarily happen within same brand’s store and website. It may be such that a customer visits store of one brand but makes final purchase at a competing brand site. During the process, whether shopped or not, an inadvertent but enhanced brand awareness is created among the store visitors about the retail brand and its offering. Sooner or later, that would expectedly convert into a sale without incurring any additional cost on customer acquisition. The PushOn study also found that 30 per cent of shoppers are ‘showroomers’ and use brick-and-mortar stores to try goods out before they buy online. Fifty-five per cent browse in-store then shop online for entertainment purchases in the hope of finding a better deal, and when it comes to buying electronics, the share stood at 52 per cent. The trend of showrooming offers some distinct benefits for retailers:

  • Low inventory: Showrooming means carrying relatively low inventory in the physical store. Thus, it almost negates the need of artfully displaying every product that retailer sells resulting in less space requirement in store. Consequently, retailers are able to save money under various expense heads that would otherwise encompass rent, retail interior design, hiring of a planogram expert and other such overhead costs. The lesser space also simplifies consumer choice, eliminating a state of ‘choice-paralysis’ usually faced by the consumers when over-supplied with options. Lesser space with select choices helps increasing retail conversion, besides helping customers become more confident in their choices.
  • Relationship building: The trend is equally helpful in reducing pressure on sales teams, as it is known in advance that no immediate sale will be achieved. Instead, it enables retailers and their staff to focus on building long-term relationships with their customers. This turns sales associates into retail consultants who provide personalised assistance and recommendations to the visiting shoppers. Such elevated customer service level not only builds stronger relationships and customer loyalty but also imparts a cutting edge to the retailer in today’s highly competitive retail landscape.
  • Deeper consumer insights: Free from any sales pressure, when store staff interacts with researching customers, it usually turns into an informal long conversation about the product. Such interaction mostly results in shoppers divulging many of their aspiration of and expectation from product being researched. A lot about their shopping habits or competition is also revealed to the staff. During interaction, the shoppers may share their preferences too and help the staff peep into their buying decisions. Thus, the store staff is better positioned to acquire deeper insights into their showrooming shoppers. With the information gathered so, in addition to the digital data footprint that is generated when these shoppers would actually shop i.e. become customers, retailer’s advertising becomes more targeted and improves the next time business.
  • Upselling & cross-selling: Every store visiting shopper, whether to check price or research a particular product, is an opportunity for the sales staff to introduce them to related or similar products and other products that they might be interested in. The upselling and cross-selling opportunities in this manner may end up boosting retailer’s average ticket size or average units per bill. To cash on such opportunities, while many retailers post QR codes near the items to provide data on the related products, there are many others who put in efforts to improve their POP (Point-of-purchase) displays at checkout counters and around sales floor area.

Webrooming
In contrast, webrooming, entirely opposite to showrooming, is a freeriding, hybrid, research-based and multi-channel shopping behaviour. Webrooming helps in reducing the number of options available to customers before the purchase and assists them in lowering uncertainty before making a final purchase. The trend, like showrooming, also caught up with more retailers switching to multichannel selling and adopting e-commerce. Many surveys have corroborated a major spike in webrooming throughout the world, with a significant number of webroomers rising in the US, Europe and Asia. According to a Business Today survey, conducted in pre-COVID times across nine major Asian cities, about 80 per cent of the Asian population webrooms while making purchases. Deloitte also found that over 69 per cent of consumers look up goods and services online and then purchase them from physical stores, reflecting the wide acceptance of webrooming approach of shopping. Another survey by PwC revealed that vast number of customers use website of the company to collect information prior to making a purchase or use services from the physical location of the company.

Stores are More than Happy
Sensing the spike in webrooming, the retailers have geared up services and efficiencies in their physical stores. Now there is a greater focus on better in-store customer experiences, such as experiential marketing and immersive brand experiences. All this aims for customers’ repeat visits. In this pursuit, employee trainings have undergone a major change. There is an increased emphasis on employee trainings to build knowledgeable sales staff with improved capability to convert webroomers into a regular footfall. Many stores these days are Wi-Fi-enabled which helps shoppers search online while standing in the store itself. Even in a non-Wi-Fi store, the customers’ search can continue through their mobile data. If queries or clarifications generated from their online research being done in-store can instantly be addressed by the store staff then and there, it increases the possibility of a sale closure. This also explains why retailers are opting for proximity marketing in a big way, featuring smartphone discounts, which pushes customers to buy in-store.

What Drives Webrooming
By understanding factors that motivate webroomers, retailers can develop strategies in creating a seamless shopping experience for them. Webrooming, a multifaceted trend, is driven by a combination of various factors that not only contributed to its emergence in the past but are also pushing its expansion further. They are mainly psychological triggers which push consumers to adopt this trend:

  • Online search is easy and useful: Compared to store visits, searching online is much easier, useful and can be done as per shoppers’ convenience. A webstore maximises their pleasure when it enables them to gather and also compare information needed before finalising a purchase sitting at one place, unlike a research that would have been otherwise done by visiting multiple stores and getting stressed in the process. Furthermore, it can be done maintaining one’s privacy, and without getting distracted by environment of the market. Webrooming enables shoppers to gather vast amount of information regarding a product very easily. Thus, the perceived benefit of online search has a positive effect on shoppers’ attitude towards webrooming behaviour. The promptness and convenience offered by online search augments customer’s inclination towards this behaviour.
  • Socialisation: Man is a social animal. Searching online is a civilised opportunity for this animal, but shopping in the company of loved ones or like-minded people is a moment to cherish. Research has also shown that social connection has a big impact on how customers shop. This is missing while shopping online. In this context, it can be said that customers’ affinity for socialisation also drives them to stores in webrooming.
  • Need of physical engagement: Since ages shoppers have been habituated to have physical contact with products to assess their features such as texture, touch, smell, taste, durability etc. This stands true in webrooming behaviour too which makes physical engagement with the product a very important aspect, catering to shoppers who value the ability to physically examine products before purchase. Their need to touch or feel the product amplifies their webrooming intention and add to their confidence to finally purchase the products or services through offline platforms.
  • Assistance of sales staff: Shoppers prefer the presence of sales staff to seek help from them in their shopping process. Absence of assistance is a major shortcoming of web outlets which encourages shoppers to make their final purchase via offline stores. Even in today’s e-commerce age, shoppers prefer to interact with the sales staff working in retail stores because their need to have direct humane interaction cannot be fulfilled in online stores. The personalised customer service motivates them to engage in webrooming.
  • Enhanced bargaining power: The online search of price comparisons across retailers is the first step in webrooming and an easy one too. Once the best price is known to shoppers, they are better informed and well prepared to bargain further, wherever possible, in the store.

Trends’ Challenges
Though in vogue, both trends nevertheless have some flip sides too. The major drawback in both trends is the sale loss of the researched or browsed channel (a necessary anomaly on which both trends actually thrive) where no buying occurs. In showrooming, physical store loses the sale whereas in webrooming, the sale loss is of the researched site. In former, there is an additional fear when shoppers happen to compare product prices with prices in discounters or secondhand shops where they may discover the best or lowest price. In that case, even a site may lose sale. Likewise, webrooming has caused enormous sales losses and consumer attrition even for marketplaces like Amazon. Webrooming activity is a challenge to pure play online retailers as well, if one goes by their unfavourably poor conversion rates.

To avoid sale loss, the store retailers need to give shoppers a reason, other than low prices, to shop with them. They need to understand that customers crave unique experiences and relationships as much as they seek discounts. In order to convert the greatest number of product inquiries into sales and to make sure that online customers exclusively make purchases from online platforms rather than moving from online to offline, it is crucial to comprehend the elements that influence this channel decision. Similarly, it is critical for online retailers to understand the reasoning behind webrooming in order to keep customers away from being taken over by competitors at the buying stage.

Furthermore, the growth of webrooming and showrooming has only added to the pressure when offering the exact experience each individual shopper is looking for. The main issue is the gap in the shoppers’ journey as it is hard for retailers to pinpoint how decisions were made and at which touching points – the journey from research to purchase is not as seamless as it is once used to be when just one of the two channels, offline or online, was used. This is where retailers need to be able to understand their customers’ needs and use this to plug their sale loss.