• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 20, 2012

Remember how I posted earlier about how everything going on seems to relate to our summits when I’m blogging them, well, here’s another amazing coincidence – or synchronicity. Not long after I asked Lowe’s mobile chief Sean Bartlett how the retailer is dealing with the trend toward “showrooming” – what happens when a consumer goes to a retailer, does their product research, and then buys the product online via the mobile Web, often while still in the store – the savvy digital media planners at WPP’s GroupM just released a report on that very subject.

The report, “Showrooming and the Price of Keeping Buyers In-Store,” which is one of the GroupM Next series, finds it is indeed a significant trend. Among its highlights:

• 45% percent of customers shopping in-store at brick and mortar locations will walk out and complete their purchase online for a discount as low as 2.5%.
• This number jumps to 60% of shoppers who will leave and purchase a product online for a savings of 5%.
• Interestingly, a product with a greater sense of urgency – such as headphones, discounts have a bit of a slowed impact on before someone “showrooms;” however for heavier objects, shoppers appear to be more apt to showroom.
• Actionable strategies to combat the showrooming effect, capture this audience and secure that purchase in-store or online.

Lowe’s Bartlett, by the way, says the retailer is keeping an eye on it, but so far hasn’t changed its strategy much to deal with it. He told me that while the mobile Web is adding another element to the process, the concept of showrooming has been around as long as there have been retail showrooms and consumers to show them to. Mobile just accelerates it.

“We’re not changing bar codes behind the scenes so that they can’t check prices,” he said. To which Mobile Insider Summit chair Steve Smith suggested an even more powerful Lowe’s strategy: That they have excellent showroom staffs that simply convert the deals at retail.