Date of Graduation

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Accounting

Advisor/Mentor

Smith, Ronn

Abstract

As technology continues to increasingly infiltrate the lives of consumers around the globe, retailers are being faced with new challenges. Not only is there a push for retailers to be faster and more responsive, but retailers are also expected to have high integration across all channels. Over the past few years, as online shopping expanded and e-commerce became the norm, phenomena such as showrooming — consumers using their phones to comparison shop in stores — seemed like the evident and looming death of brick and mortar retailers (Adler, 2013). Historically, offline retailers have tried various methods to eliminate showrooming, going as far as charging customers to browse online in stores (Sevitt, 2013). However, these efforts among retailers have proved futile. It has become apparent that the fight against online comparison shopping will produce nothing but reduced sales and disgruntled customers. This thesis, through a case study, will serve as a means to better understand how specialty retailers in particular are affected by showrooming and how they can embrace the transitioning world of retail, using a four-part framework for success, to maximize vitality and longevity of their business. Principally, for this study, I will focus on three specialty retailers: Best Buy, PetSmart, and Toys“R”Us.

Keywords

retail; integration; showroom; consumer behavior

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