We recently came upon a video from the series Knowledge@Wharton, titled “Want to Stop Retail Showrooming? Start Training Your Staff,” that seemed to spark some intrigue. In our SIA Spotlight, we ran a Showrooming series offering insights, ideas, methods and tips to rise above this challenge. This video takes a slightly different, yet similar approach.
Read on below for more on this video, and check out other recent posts in our Showrooming and Webrooming Series:
Webrooming: The Emerging Consumer Behavior You Need to Know About
Learn the Art of Selling More Gear This Season
‘Tis the Season for Showrooming: To Combat Online Sales, Snow Sports Reatilers are Focusing on Their Strengths
How much of a difference does knowledgeability make to the bottom line? For different shops, different tactics will be made. Whatever works for you, do it. Showrooming cannot be ignored, as we previously mentioned in our series, but can it be stopped?
Marshall L. Fisher, professor of operations, information and decisions at Wharton, and his colleagues, INSEAD professor Serguei Netessine and then-Wharton doctoral candidate Santiago Galino (who is now a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business), studied data from 63,500 salespeople at 330 stores. The resulting report, titled “Do Online Training Work in Retail? Improving Store Execution through Online Learning,” quantifies the answer by the metric that matters most in retail: sales. In this interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Fisher explains what they learned, and what the implications are for businesses across the board.
“A sales associate who spent an hour on training saw a 5% gain. From the sales associate’s standpoint, being paid on commission, that’s hugely impactful. You take an hour out of your day and you’re getting 5% more commission. Do the numbers, and it’s tremendously beneficial to a sales associate, as well as the retailer.”
Find the full article here.