How can modern retailers compete with Showrooming? Do retailers have to slash prices and take profit losses? Can small businesses beat online retailers in the long term?

These are important questions with difficult answers

When studying the Showrooming trend common answers for combating the phenomenon seem to be; advise the retailer that by adding value or additional services is the answer. Or, lower prices and compete on pricing while hoping to survive on thinner profit margins will do it. But, the one tactic most likely to succeed is by making information and reviews more readily available to customers. This is the winning tactic to combat the Showrooming effect.

In the modern world of smartphones with instant access to online-only competitors, comparison pricing sites and one click ordering, it is more important than ever that small business control what online details the customer gets in-store when making a purchasing decision. If brick and mortar locations give a potential customer the chance to open an online competitors app, or mobile web site, that retailer is at grave risk of watching any potential sale disappear into a puff of smoke.