41% of Britons indulge in ‘showrooming’, the process of checking online deals while examining merchandise in a traditional brick and mortar store.
According to a new data from EE, the process is expected to have a huge impact during Christmas, which is the biggest spending season of the year.
The findings showed that nearly 74% of shoppers prefer to browse online stores rather than check out deals in physical stores, with 79% of shoppers conducting research online before making any purchase.
47% of shoppers in London and Newcastle confessed of ‘showrooming’, followed by 45% of shoppers in Manchester. Belfast and Norwich has only 36% and 33%, respectively, of shoppers who claimed that they check out online deals while in physical stores.
According to EE, the trend is most popular amongst young shoppers within the age group of 18 and 34.
Around 82% of young shoppers preferred using Amazon for checking out deals, while 54% said they preferred eBay to indulge in ‘showrooming’, followed by Tesco.
The data also revealed that despite the boost in online retail, 43% of Britons preferred to shop in physical stores because the process is quicker.
More than 56% of those surveyed also said that they would shop in physical stores if the deals offered by them match the ones offered by online retailers.
EE Corporate Products head Jeremy Spencer said: "The practice of showrooming isn’t going away.
"However, retailers actually have a significant opportunity to both engage and retain showrooming customers.
" Encouraging customers to look up additional information on products in-store using free Wi-Fi, offering a mobile app with digital loyalty schemes and, as our research indicates, offering to match prices found online can not only prevent showrooming in the short term, but can help keep customers coming back."
