If I'm buying a commodity that I'm familiar with (or have had recommended), I usually get it from Amazon. If I'm in a tearing hurry, I get if from a shop. Rarely do I look at something in a shop and then buy it online. And, recently, the price differences/hassle factor often combine in the store's favour anyway.
A recent example is a mattress: next day free delivery and they took the old one away. And the company - Jones & Tomlin - had a brilliant website and price matched anyway. What wasn't to like?
But many retailers - and I know John Lewis suffers (suffered?) from this - are plagued by the 'touch and feel' and 'advice-seeking' brigades who then, having found what they want, go home and order from Amazon.
Graham Charlton, who I don't know, but who seems to talk a lot of sense on this subject has blogged about various strategies stores can adopt in his post, "13 ways for retailers to deal with the threat of showrooming".
Thought you might be interested. Lord knows what it has to do with my blog theme though.
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