Showrooming – It’s what they do!

By Ron Simmons and DedeGossage

Another Christmas shopping and selling season has come and gone. Now it is time to think about next year. What!!?? But, between now and then, as a famous TV host’s tagline went, “Can we talk?”

Let’s talk about showrooming. This word has not yet found its way into the classic dictionary but has cleverly entered the retailing lexicon. Showrooming is what happens when you put 300,000,000 mobile devices with internet capability into the hands of 200,000,000 highly mobile consumers who are always looking for the best deal. Let’s talk about a customer that we’ll call, Sally Showroomer.

Sally comes into your store to see a product that she is interested in. She finds it and then whips out her smart phone to scan the tag on your merchandise or enters the name and model number in her phone. A downloaded app tells her two things: 1) who else in the area sells this item and for what price, and 2) who sells it online and for how much. You’ve just been “showroomed .” Does this scene look familiar? What can you do?

A couple of things are obvious: Sally is in YOUR store, RIGHT NOW! If you sit on your stool and look bored, the sale might walk right out the door.

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Habits – The Power of Trained Behaviors

Habitual Power – Necessity of a CEO

By Dede Gossage/Program Coordinator

Some people are very good at being disciplined.  Developmental training that leads to disciplined behavior typically begins during a child’s formative years. I’m no athlete and didn’t grow up in an athletic familly.  I exercised, but not on a regular basis with deliberate intent to be physically fit. My doctor once told me that after the age of 50, I would  lose 15% of my body muscle mass every 10 years.  As a result, I started an all out assault on my body with a workout routine several times a week and then I followed up with a Starbucks caramel macchiato on the way home from the gym. Sadly, habits can also be hard to break. I am still struggling with a change in my behavors in my exercise ‘routine’.

Routine behaviors usually take hold with frequent reminders and routine followed up by some kind of reward (not necessarily good, but with an intrinsically desired outcome).