The retail business used to be pretty straightforward -- advertise to bring customers in the door and then sell them your products. Rinse, repeat.
Today, though, a steady stream of those customers end up leaving stores empty-handed, content to go home and order the product they want from a low-cost provider online.
Or, even worse yet, those consumers might just order the product online using their cell phone -- buying from a competitor while physically standing in a store!
Big names across the retail space, from Best Buy (BBY 1.09%) to Target (TGT -0.54%), have attempted to curb this "showrooming" through a variety of programs aimed at turning visitors to the physical store into paying customers. Brandon Workman of Business Insider Intelligence says all these measures are reactive and defensive.
In the following interview with Motley Fool contributor Jay Jenkins, Workman explains how retail giant Wal-Mart (WMT 0.57%) has taken a different approach. Wal-Mart isn't taking showrooming lying down; instead, the company is tackling the threat head-on by going on the offensive.
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