Last Friday I wrote a post about ways that booksellers, notably Barnes & Noble, might reduce the impact of showrooming, in which customers visit stores but ultimately purchase a product elsewhere.
After the post went up, Peter Turner tweeted me a link to a Statista “Chart of the Day” that had been published a day earlier. According to Statista, 29% of book consumers purchased a book online after visiting a bricks-and-mortar retail outlet.
That’s middle of the pack among the sectors reported by Statista:
- Consumer electronics – 63%
- Apparel, clothing & accessories – 43%
- Books – 29%
- Appliances – 22%
- Toys – 22%
- Jewelry and watches – 16%
- “Other” – 10%
While not specific to the book category, Statista reported that smartphone users were fairly likely to check product reviews and compare prices while in the store. The presence of that activity supports the idea of offering in-store kiosks that might capture at least some of the showroom shopper’s purchase activity.
Interestingly, Statista found that 48% of buyers “felt better about a purchase” after scanning for product information, while another 14% said they made a purchase they had not planned to make. The idea of configuring bricks-and-mortar bookstores to support such inquiries might yield some welcome benefits.
