Are you a fit-lifter? The inexorable march of showrooming

Here's a term I hadn't come across before: 'fit-lifting'.

Apparently 'fit-lifters' are people who avail themselves of bricks 'n mortar shoe shops to try on a pair of shoes and then return home to buy them cheaper online at Amazon or its like. It's a growing trend in the States and I'm sure 'fit-lifting' is fast on its way over here, if it's not here already. It seems US shoe shop owners started to notice a pattern of people coming in to their stores, finding the perfect fitting shoe but then leaving the store empty handed.  Although many stores report it not always being so surreptitious and say they commonly hear, "My mom sent me in to get my size fitted so she can buy them online."

'Fit-lifting' is part of a wider trend called 'showrooming' – you've probably witnessed (or done it ) yourself in shops like Waterstones where people making price comparisons on their smart phones and often purchase whilst standing there.  Acting as a physical showroom for online retailers has understandably deeply angered many shop owners, to the extent that you are increasingly starting to see signs like the one above.

Showrooming is an unstoppable tsunami and will ultimately affect all retailers of easily price comparable mass-market products. Whether it's electrical goods retailers, perfume stores or book shops, they all are at the mercy of shoppers doing a little showrooming because now we increasingly all have a super-fast smart phone in our hands. 

I'm afraid I'm guilty of it myself. I was recently walking through the electrical department of John Lewis and was attracted by a Bose travel speaker which my iPhone could effortlessly connect to via bluetooth. I wasn't approached by a sales assistant whilst I tried it out and later when I got home I thought I would buy it from the John Lewis website but before doing so I thought I'd just check out the price on Amazon.  And yes you guessed it, John Lewis, the 'never knowingly undersold' department store, was indeed being undersold – by quite a hefty amount. 

I think much of British retail has badly underestimated the impact of showrooming and I was interested to read a report out today from the Said Business School which has been tracking the fortunes of 1300 British High Streets over the past two years. Their findings don't make pretty reading and they forecast another 5000 shops will be lost over the next five years (although I would say it will be sooner). One rather depressing finding of the report is the huge growth in pawnbroker shops, pay day lenders and betting shops, and it calls in to question how planning permission has so readily been granted, so that they now completely dominate many high streets.

One bright spot is a 10% growth in health and beauty outlets on the high street (not easy to showroom getting a facial) and there has been a huge surge in eating out (again not easy to do online). In the next few years high streets will be completely and utterly transformed by showrooming and online retailing. But local councils and government need to decide how they can legislate to make town centres still desirable to visit for eating out and beautifying yourself, rather than scary no-go zones of cheap booze shops, pay-day lenders and book makers. You can get drunk, borrow some money and the bet it all away in the space of three shops.

Amazons' first store opening was rumoured to be happening in Seattle last year but nothing materialised - so what happens when there are no more stores in which to do any showrooming?  Over to you Mr Bezos


Also see: 

http://www.philipbeeching.com/2013/02/life-after-hmv-trip-down-high-street.html

http://www.philipbeeching.com/2013/03/the-death-of-uk-high-street-resurgence.html