You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time. That goes double if you are a penny-pinching mom playing Santa Claus.
I am all about retailers trying to make cash this holiday season. I get that, but when you are living on a tight budget and you have kids who are expecting St. Nick to deliver a little more than just a few stale candy canes this Christmas, don’t be dissing tech-savvy parents.
A number of big-box retailers have been complaining about shoppers and “showrooming.” The term was coined to describe would-be customers who frequent stores with their smartphones and employ apps designed to find cheaper deals online. For example, Nextag is a popular comparison-shopping site used by millions of parents who don’t have the time to research prices on toys or electronics at a billion different stores. To help, the company allows you to scan barcodes, take a picture or type in a product name, and then almost instantly you are greeted with the item’s price at various retailers. All you have to do is look for the cheapest price being offered and purchase at will. The app also allows you to put things on Nextag’s “radar” which then alerts you when the price of your desired item drops.
SnapTell is also popular with parents. The app offers one of the fastest ways to see if a product found in stores is being offered at a lower price online. It’s operated by Amazon.com and is quite reputable. Users simply take a photo of the item, and then the image is run through a database to see where it’s advertised online. In addition, barcodes can also be scanned by smartphones for information. This app works best with books, DVDs, CDs and video games, though my neighbor also had success with a few toys.
Obviously, big-box stores want your business. They don’t want you just coming on their property to snap photos, scan barcodes, and then purchase an item for less elsewhere; hence the irritation with tech-savvy moms and dads.
To deal with these new tech tools some retailers are working with budget-conscious shoppers rather than getting frustrated with them. Places like Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart are now offering price-matching on items found online for less. Unfortunately, the service is only good to the end of the holiday season.
Are you guilty of “showrooming”?