Act Now: "Showrooming" Can Be Good For Business, New Research From Vibes Reveals

CHICAGO, Sept. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Vibes, a mobile marketing and technology company, today published its first annual Vibes Mobile Consumer Report providing retail brands with guidance on how to connect with today's mobile consumers and enhance the multi-channel shopping experience. With the holiday shopping season just around the corner, the research reveals ways retailers can prepare now to counter the threat of "showrooming" and at the same time secure the sale either within their brick and mortar stores or via their e-commerce sites.

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Key Findings

• Nearly half of all consumers use their mobile phones to feel better about their purchase by scanning or texting for more product information while in-store, highlighting an opportunity for retailers to provide well-positioned in-store calls-to-action where consumers can get helpful information about products.
• 84 percent of "showrooming shoppers" have conducted research while shopping in-store, making mobile a direct and personal channel through which to engage shoppers in real-time.
• 33 percent of consumers have admitted to comparison shopping on a competitor's website while in another retailer's store, with 6 percent likely to abandon an in-store purchase for a competitor. This finding demonstrates that while retailers today should be thinking about "showrooming" consumers, they need to be more concerned with providing useful and timely information to help shoppers feel good about their purchases while in-store. 
• The survey data reveals that only 17 percent of consumers have used a company's app while shopping in-store, demonstrating the continued – and growing – importance of an easy-to-navigate and use mobile website.
• 69 percent of consumers have unsubscribed from a retailer's mobile database due to too many messages or updates, highlighting the importance for retailers to understand the delicate balance of time, location and interaction when using mobile as a channel to reach today's connected shoppers.  

"We are seeing a big shift happening today in retail," said Jack Philbin, co-founder, CEO and president of Vibes. "A decade ago, brands realized they needed to create an online presence and so everyone created an ecommerce website. Today, consumers are turning to their mobile phones to make purchasing decisions, which means that access to mobile-optimized content needs to be an effortless experience for the mobile consumer. Retailers who understand this and listen to their customers to engage them on their terms and provide them with relevant and timely information they can use will be successful in building a loyal customer base. The retailers who don't deploy a mobile marketing strategy will continue to be challenged with decreasing in-store sales and risk being Amazoned."

To view the complete findings, visit www.vibes.com/resources. Vibes will also be sharing key findings of this report during a Mobile Marketing Association webinar on Sept. 6, 2012 at 2 pm EDT.

Methodology
The Vibes Mobile Consumer Report was fielded by independent panel research firm Research Now and responses were generated from a survey among 1,006 mobile phone owners from their online opinion panel. All respondents are age 18 or older and living in the continental United States. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.1 percent.

About Vibes
Founded in 1998, Vibes is a mobile marketing and technology leader that helps some of the world's biggest brands acquire, engage and deepen relationships throughout the customer lifecycle. Vibes' Catapult platform enables brands, agencies and media companies to launch a wide range of mobile solutions from SMS, to MMS, QR Codes, on-screen, alerts, mobile Web, mobile incentives and integration with social platforms. Using Vibes' Mobile Relationship Management (MRM) approach, companies forge immediate and long-lasting customer relationships by tapping into the uniquely personal nature of the mobile phone. The Company has delivered billions of mobile experiences on behalf of customers that include Verizon, Allstate, The Gap, Tribune, Fox, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Gannett and the Chicago Bulls. Vibes is one of only nine Tier 1 aggregators with secure, direct connections to all the major carriers. To learn more about Vibes, visit www.vibes.com or connect on Facebook.com/VibesMedia or Twitter.com/Vibes_Media.

Contact:
Kristin Parran Faulder
InkHouse (for Vibes)
781-966-4100
[email protected]

SOURCE Vibes