Bricks-and-mortar stores have been concerned for some time that their shoppers would come to their stores, find products, and then go online to get the best prices. Store, in essence, has started to become showrooms, and not centers of commerce
To combat this, Target (NYSE: TGT). Walmart (NYSE: WMT), and Costco (NASDAQ: COST) have set programs to sell in-house brands which cannot be bought on websites like Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). The decision to do this may have come just in time, but will not prevent cellphone-carrying shoppers from comparing prices on name brands.
New Pew research shows that more than 50% of shoppers are now armed with cellphones which they use while in stores.
More than half of adult cell phone owners used their cell phones while they were in a store during the 2011 holiday season to seek help with purchasing decisions. During a 30 day period before and after Christmas:
•38% of cell owners used their phone to call a friend while they were in a store for advice about a purchase they were considering making
•24% of cell owners used their phone to look up reviews of a product online while they were in a store
•25% of adult cell owners used their phones to look up the price of a product online while they were in a store, to see if they could get a better price somewhere else
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