Student Shoppers Mix Web and Store Visits

Since college students spend a great deal of time on their phones, does that mean they prefer to shop with their digits instead of heading to a physical store? Not necessarily.

According to the latest monthly student survey conducted by NACS OnCampus Research, students tend to blend their online and in-person shopping. For instance, the majority of students still buy most clothing during visits to bricks-and-mortar locations. However, 27% will go online first to look up information before they set off for the store.

Conversely, 21% of students said they browsed apparel in a physical store prior to actually placing their order online.

The same is true of technology products. While 41% of students said they bought tech merchandise online, another 43% researched tech products on the web before making the purchase at a store.

More than two-thirds of students do visit the websites of online-only retailers, such as eBay and Amazon, at least once a month, with about a quarter doing so every week. Whether they’re shopping online or in a physical store, price is still the most important facet in deciding what and where to buy. Free shipping was important to 56% of respondents. Convenience and product quality still matter to students, but not nearly as much as cost.

Plug-In Lets Buyers Shop Amazon, Buy Local

An app developer created a Chrome extension that turns the tables on Amazon, at least in the United Kingdom. BookIndy allows users to browse Amazon.co.uk and buy at participating local bookstores.

The app pulls data from book listings on the Amazon website and checks local stores through Hive.co.uk, an online bookseller. If the participating local store has the book in stock, BookIndy lists the price, a link to Amazon, and the distance in miles to the store.

While the plug-in is available in the Chrome Web Store, it only works with amazon.co.uk. The plug-in does allow users to find the cheapest price available, as well as information on the quickest way to get the title and have it delivered, but the only other examples of similar apps are tied to Amazon in France and to the e-book subscription service Oyster, according to Nate Hoffelder in his blog post for Ink, Bits, & Pixels.

“If you want to support your local bookseller, this is a great idea,” Hoffelder wrote. “I don’t have any local indies within driving distance myself, but given how rare these extensions are, I don’t think the idea is proving as popular as some in book culture would like.”

Fire Is a Real threat to Retail

The Amazon Fire may be a remarkable advance in smartphone technology or an underwhelming device that costs too much, depending on which article you read. But Fire’s real value for Amazon is what the company does best: make Amazon indispensable to its users.

“The Amazon Fire phone exists so Amazon can showroom the world,” Sascha Segan wrote in PC Magazine. “It’s the hardware device for the Everything Store. And any actual store that competes with Amazon should be just a little afraid.”

There have been reports suggesting consumers are starting to shy away from showrooming in favor of webrooming, using their smartphones to learn about products that they later purchase in a store. The Firefly button on the new Fire could change that because it makes showrooming so much easier. A single click from the lock screen provides a user with information on the product in question and an easy path to the Amazon checkout page.

“Apple, Samsung, and AT&T can be Amazon’s suppliers, even though Apple and AT&T have successful retail arms,” Segan said. “But pure retail stores are just the enemy.”

That includes the college store industry. Just imagine a student walking in, pointing his Fire at a textbook and Amazon does the rest, making sure the student has plenty of options to rent or buy, along with suggestions on hoodies and dorm supplies that can be added to his or her cart.

Stores Should Provide Free WiFi

Instead of being worried about showrooming, retailers should provide free Wi-Fi to encourage shoppers do even more online browsing, according to a new study from Acquity Group. The survey found that half of the responding smartphone owners are more confident making major purchases when they can use free in-store Wi-Fi to research a product.

The report also found that 30% of smartphone owners would browse for additional items to buy and 20% would spend more time shopping if stores offered free Wi-Fi. More than 1,500 smartphone owners were surveyed for the study, which also showed that 78% looked up a retailer’s inventory online prior to visiting the store and 60% said they made in-store purchases after browsing for product images and information on their phone.

“Your site has to be mobile-optimized and you need to make access to Wi-Fi easy,” said Mark Rein, group account director at Acquity Group, in an article in Marketing Daily. “In-store Wi-Fi also tends to keep customers in the store longer, where they’ll view—and be more likely to purchase—items not on their list.”

Study Debunks Showrooming Myth

A 2012 study found that more than half of its respondents expected bricks-and-mortar retailers to be showrooms for online merchants by 2020. Now, a new report from the Columbia Business School and loyalty management firm Aimia paints a more optimistic picture for traditional retailers.

The report found that while 70% of the 3,000 consumers polled had showroomed at least once in the last year, just 6% went into the store with a plan to buy online after seeing the product in person. It also found that more than 50% were more likely to purchase in-store when they used a mobile device to find online reviews or other information.

“Our findings contradict many of the common assumptions about the threat of showrooming,” David Rogers, professor at the Columbia Business School and an author of the report, told GigaOM.com. “Many [customers with smartphones] are not showrooming but looking for the right information to be confident in their purchase.”

The study reported that most mobile shoppers use their device to check prices, but that convenience, urgency, and immediacy are reasons why they will make a purchase in-store instead of online. In addition, 48% said loyalty programs made them more likely to purchase in-store, even if they found equal or cheaper prices online, while services such as price-matching, free home delivery, and extended warranties also kept them in stores.

“Retailers don’t have to resort to automatic price-matching,” said Rick Ferguson, co-author of the report and vice president of knowledge development at Aimia. “M-shoppers show a strong willingness to join loyalty programs in exchange for rewards, and this gives retailers the chance to build long-term relationships with them.”

Geofencing Taking Aim at Showrooming

Geofencing may go mainstream this year, says the Things to Watch in Retail 2013 report from JWT. The global marketing company formerly known as J. Walter Thompson predicts the practice will become an effective weapon in retailers’ fight against showrooming.

Geofencing refers to an opt-in text-messaging system triggered whenever the recipient walks into a store or its nearby environs. Stores are able to text special offers aimed at clinching an immediate sale on the premises.

Although geofencing has been available for several years, it’s been used mostly by specialty retailers on a limited basis. Now, though, JWT sees signs that it’s expanding into mall chain stores such as Best Buy as a means to persuade shoppers to purchase in person rather than just browsing in the store and going online to buy from another merchant.

For retailers catering to young adults, or really anyone trying to get the attention of the college student-aged cohort, text messages could be the most effective means of reaching this age group, better than e-mail, snail mail, or possibly even social media. A new survey of 1,500 smartphone owners conducted by Experian Marketing indicated 85% of 18- to 24-year-olds use their phones weekly for texting, compared to just 59% of owners across all ages.

On average, according to the survey, the under-24 set sends and receives more than 120 text messages a day. Many keep their phones bedside every night just in case they get a message and consider texts to be on the same personal level as phone calls.