Report Card Time: Best Buy’s Showrooming Campaign

An October campaign that embraced showrooming led to increased traffic, but little change in purchasing behavior, an analytics company claims.

December 27, 2013

NEW YORK Nearly two months after Best Buy deployed an aggressive anti-showrooming campaign one that actually encouraged shoppers to adopt the practice at its stores with the hope that the traffic would be converted to new customers the results are in and theyre inconclusive, AdAge reports.

While the campaign has led to increased store traffic, more could be done to encourage shoppers to actually buy its products, AdAge writes, citing social media data.

Jehan Hamedi, global market development manager at Crimson Hexagon, a social-media analytics company that analyzed Twitter and Facebook data from 16,500 online consumer opinions from Oct. 21 to Dec. 12 on Best Buy, said Best Buys show rooming campaign resonated strongly among consumers, with positive sentiments far outweighing the negative. However, he said understanding what drives purchasing decisions is the most relevant and that 10% of the surveyed customers said Best Buys strategy actually gave Amazon the benefit. 

"They're [consumers are] telling us that Best Buy is where they go to look at merchandise and then they go buy it online later," Hamedi said. "What consumers are not shy about telling us is why they showroom, when they do it and the connection to a named competitor, and that's Amazon.

What if you created something memorable that exceeds [consumers'] expectations?" Hamedi said.

Final results of Best Buys strategy wont become conclusive until it releases its Q4 earnings early next month. 

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