As you are well aware, consumers have a lot of information on the Internet about practically any product or service. This insight caused the emergence of a new trend: webrooming.
Webrooming takes place when users look for online information to make an offline purchase later. It is a trend that is increasingly defined, and its protagonists are those customers who, although being Internet and new technologies users, are still reluctant towards online purchase. This phenomenon is an excellent example of the new tendency towards omnichannel, in which the boundaries between the offline and online worlds dwindle.
Given this situation, your brand has two options: to become the creator of that content that will determine the purchase or to let others do it for you, which will make you lose an important competitive advantage. Which one will you choose?
Webrooming: why should you consider it?
Webrooming will help you turn the web’s online visits into offline customers. This way, customers ensure that the project acquired is the one they want and that the features and information they found on the net are real. Furthermore, consumers can also save the shipping costs of the product they are going to acquire, and can enjoy it without waiting, since they purchase it directly at the physical store, and can take it home and start enjoying it from the first minute.
This technique is linked to the ROPO effect (Research Online Purchase Offline). This effect refers to users that use the Internet to know the offers at the stores around them, in order to benefit from the promotions they launch while the company engages customers.
According to a survey done by GFK, three out of four users consulting online the information of products or services in which they are interested, want also visit the physical store to see the product live. According to the survey, 71% of them goes to the store within 7 days after doing the consultation.
Moreover, thanks to webrooming, 85% users that visited the shop made their purchase. Out of this 85%, 64% purchased the product they were interested in and had informed about, and 21% purchased a product different to their previous online research.
Geolocation: the best way of connecting with customers before the purchase
In order to carry out the webrooming strategy and drive customers to conversion, geolocation is the perfect tool. Thanks to it, you can send notifications through the smartphone to final consumers, offering promotions and special offers through this medium.
As we said previously, if consumers have downloaded the mobile app associated to the brand, you can send them push notifications through geolocation, with promotional discounts or offers associated to this type of customers.
An example of this strategy is the one performed by the glasses and sunglasses North American company Warby Parker. This company was born to only sell glasses online at a unique price of 100$. Once the eCommerce was launched, they detected how customers had troubles asking for the first order online.
The company looked for a solution that wasn’t expensive but at the same time gave consumers confidence, so they transformed a bus for it to be a physical shop to sell the glasses. This bus travelled through different cities in the USA, so people could visit and try the product, and this way decide the type of glasses they wanted to acquire.
At Hooptap, we offer a gamification platform in which geolocation can be included which serves to help dynamize the point of sale. This way, customers can find new messages and get special promotions by geolocating in your point of sale, or even be entertained while they wait at the physical store.
Thanks to gamification, you can inform your customers about your products and condition their behaviour to make them make a purchase at the physical store.
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