A solution to showrooming may finally be here

December 13, 2013

by Dustin Kurtz - Melville House

The founders of Estimote. I guess $3.1 million in venture capital isn’t enough to buy a head that’ll support itself?

With devices from the new tech startup Estimote already being shipped, bookstores and other retailers finally have a tool to help fight back against showrooming.

Showrooming is the practice by which customers in a store browse books (or anything really, but why would you ever buy anything but books?) but then buy those books online from other less wonderful retailers, either after they’ve left  the store or even right there under the icy death glare of passing booksellers. It is a noxious habit, and one that nearly everyone is guilty of at some time or another.

The problem got a good dose of general attention when Amazon released their blatantly malign showrooming app in the fall of 2011, encouraging customers in stores to stick their sweaty phone-greased hands into the mouths of booksellers everywhere and pull out whatever meager crumbs of sustenance they might find within.

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