UMix serves many types of businesses: offices, restaurants, universities, airports, etc. But our largest share is brick and mortar retailers. So we especially like to keep up with developing trends in retail and try to make sense of them in the context of improving UMix Media’s music for business and digital signage. Two retail trends worth mentioning are “showrooming” and “webrooming.”
In case you’re not familiar…showrooming is the process of trying out products in the store – and then buying on-line, and webrooming is the reverse process of researching and deciding on-line and then going to the store to make the purchase. Research is showing that webrooming is on the rise.
Through a wider lens, this trend is really about the interplay of human behavior and technology. Webrooming and showrooming are simply examples of human behavior, and the driver behind the behavior is technology. More and more consumers have access to and are getting better at using the web. Meanwhile, more great websites pop up every day. Consumers behave rationally and come up with new and creative ways to use their skills and new web resources to get the most they can when they spend their hard-earned money.
Amidst the chaos of all the change, successful retailers understand who they are, who they serve, how they serve, and constantly try to get better. They understand their true north. That understanding is the basis for how they adapt to meet new consumer behaviors with change that will satisfy customers – and the retailer’s bottom line.