{"id":3492,"date":"2018-11-09T11:30:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T06:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sketharaman.com\/blog\/?p=3492"},"modified":"2022-02-21T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T08:40:18","slug":"discount-is-not-the-only-reason-for-shopping-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sketharaman.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/09\/discount-is-not-the-only-reason-for-shopping-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Discount Is Not The Only Reason For Shopping Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of my blog post titled\u00a0Retail Is Still Barking Up The Wrong Tree Against Ecommerce<\/a><\/strong>, I’d made a bold prediction that, within a few months, I’d find a few more non-price related reasons for shopping online.<\/p>\n

Well, it took me longer than that but I found one recently.<\/p>\n

This was at the outlet of a chain store where I’d gone to buy a toaster.<\/p>\n

I entered the store, picked up the toaster and reached the checkout.<\/p>\n

The Cashier was missing.\u00a0Apparently he\u2019d gone to the backoffice to figure out how to bill a certain item in the shopping basket of the customer ahead of me.<\/p>\n

The queue was standstill for more than a minute. I decided to give \u201cshowrooming\u201d a try.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For the uninitiated, showrooming is a type of omnichannel shopping where you visit a store but place the order online. You can find more on this increasingly popular shopping trend in my blog posts entitled\u00a0How Can Organized Retailers Respond To Showrooming?<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Stores Have Themselves To Blame For \u2018Showrooming\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I fired up go-to showrooming app RedLaser. It didn\u2019t list the product.<\/p>\n

I then tried Scandid, my other favorite app in this category. As soon as I scanned the barcode on the toaster\u2019s box, Scandid displayed many cheaper sources for the same product, one of which was Amazon India. Since Amazon is my go-to online store, I went ahead immediately. I tapped the BUY button on Scandid, went to the Amazon mobile website \u2013 I haven’t bothered to install its native Android app \u2013 and placed the order with a few more taps.<\/p>\n

Mission accomplished!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just as I was about to leave the checkout bay, the cashier returned to the till.<\/p>\n

I told him how close he was to getting my business but lost it by going AWOL. He didn’t seem to care.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t surprised. After all, his employer belongs to a business group that’s better known for philanthropy and employee welfare than Customer Experience or Maximization of Shareholder Value.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the store lost the sale to Amazon, which is known for its diametrically opposite approach.<\/p>\n

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Does Amazon's work culture show that you can't both mollycoddle employees & delight customers at the same time? http:\/\/t.co\/8s81Gpi7Qy<\/a>?<\/p>\n

— Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) August 27, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n