Try before you buy: so-called 'fit-lifters' will buy online after visiting a retail store

Powerful consumers

From the ability to post product reviews on social media sites to comparing the best prices on smartphones while in a shop, consumers have never had so much power.

While in the past it was retailers who decided what customers wanted to buy and then put the goods in shops, today consumers hold the upper hand.

Much of this has been driven by the ability to buy online. According to retail research group Verdict, UK online sales this year are set to account for £1 of every £8. Internet sales are also powering ahead in the US where, according to Bain & Company, the consultancy, online will account for just under 12 per cent of total sales by 2015.

Some retail analysts suggest that with the rise of tablet computers and smartphones a second internet boom has taken place, as consumers can shop online more easily and frequently. Conlumino, the retail consultancy, says mobile accounted for 10.9 per cent of UK online retail sales in 2012.

Smartphones are also enabling consumers to check prices online. They can be in one store but checking the price of a product in a competitor’s shop. This takes away from the retailer one of the traditional givens – that if a consumer was in your store at least you had some influence over them. Not any more.

This is leading to the concept of showrooming, whereby shoppers go to a shop to test or examine a product before buying elsewhere, usually online. According to a survey from TNS, part of Kantar, the consumer research group, 33 per cent of people worldwide admit to showrooming.

When it comes to the nuances of showrooming, some 43 per cent of people use their mobile to read product reviews while in store, but 31 per cent use their mobiles to compare prices, according to TNS. Some 14 per cent use their phones to check availability in other stores, while 14 per cent examine whether it is easier to order online.

In the US, some shoe retailers, frustrated at consumers who try on shoes for fit in physical stores but buy them cheaper online, have dubbed these shoppers “fit-lifters”. But TNS says stores can still engage shoppers – and nudge them to the tills – even when they are surfing on their smartphones in the shops. It found that 38 per cent of people are interested in redeeming coupons on their mobile phones, while 30 per cent would like to receive coupons when they walk past a product.

David Suddens, chief executive of R Griggs Group, the maker of Dr Martens footwear, says with the rise of multi-channel, it is the way of the world for retailers. “We have to let consumers do what they will do,” he says.

Andrea Felsted