As we have blogged several times (see this post, for example), bricks-and-mortar retailers are doing all they can to reduce shoppers’ use of showooming — whereby they visit a retail store to learn more about products and then buy online. A ClickIQ survey found that half of the people who end up purchasing online visit a store first.

According to Mike Wehrs of ScanBuy, writing at Mobile Marketer: “Savvy retailers are already turning showrooming from a problem into an opportunity by using the mobile medium to engage shoppers, educating them about their products, and delivering relevant deals available only in the store. Increasingly, their strategies center around QR codes as an easy way to bring shoppers to a controlled and extremely targeted experience. For example, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Staples are among the retailers that have added QR codes to their bricks-and-mortar stores. They make it convenient for shoppers to get more information about a product from that merchant rather than from a competitor such as an online retailer.” 

Click the image to read more from Wehr at Mobile Marketer.