Showrooming & Competing Effects in Shoe Retailing

With the advent of e-commerce, showrooming has become more prevalent.  Showrooming refers to the practice of examining merchandise in a traditional brick and mortar retail store or other offline settings, and then buying it online, sometimes at a lower price.

Does the entry of an offline store generate more purchases for a competing online retailer due to the showrooming effect?  Or will the online retailer lose demand to the newly opened offline store as some consumers find the new store more preferable, a phenomenon known as competing effect?

Assistant Professor Lin Mei from SMU's School of Information Systems conducts research in areas such as platform business strategies, platform pricing, and electronic commerce.  In this podcast, she shares her research on the showrooming and competing effects in the shoe retailing industry, and the possible benefits to shoe retailers in understanding consumer behaviour.