Study of 600+ Indian shoppers links motivation to webrooming and showrooming

Research involving more than 600 Indian consumers finds promotion-focused shoppers are more likely to webroom and report higher satisfaction, while prevention-focused shoppers lean toward showrooming. The findings point to more tailored online-to-store journeys based on motivation, touch needs and decision style.

— Source publishedThu, 30 Jul, 2026, 09:40 IST·First seen Thu, 30 Jul, 2026, 10:37 IST·Source ET BrandEquity

What happened

Research involving over 600 Indian consumers finds promotion-focused shoppers prefer webrooming and report higher satisfaction, while prevention-focused

Key facts

  • Over 600 Indian consumers

Why this matters

Prioritize partners or targets with customer-data, in-store clienteling, and journey-orchestration capabilities that can identify webrooming versus showrooming intent and activate tailored paths.

What to watch

  • Rising use of QR scans, digital wish lists and associate-created carts during store visits.
  • Higher online conversion within 24 to 72 hours of store visits, especially in electronics, beauty, furniture, apparel and other touch-dependent categories.
  • Evidence that tailored reassurance messages, return policies or expert guidance outperform discount offers for prevention-focused shoppers.
  • Retailer changes to store-associate incentives that include online orders, endless-aisle orders or assisted digital sales.
  • Growth in first-party identity capture rates across anonymous store traffic and online research sessions.
  • A widening gap between gross conversion gains and net margin gains from omnichannel promotions.
  • Instrument cross-channel identity capture at product-view, store-visit, associate-interaction, cart and purchase stages, with explicit consent.
  • Create category-level journey rules rather than one universal omnichannel flow; high-touch, high-risk and high-consideration categories should receive stronger showrooming support.
  • Test webroomer journeys using local store availability, reserve-online-pickup-in-store, comparison tools, consultation booking and purchase reassurance.
  • Test showroomer journeys using in-store QR codes, associate-built digital carts, price and specification persistence, home-delivery options and time-limited post-visit follow-up.
  • Revise attribution and store compensation so digitally completed orders following a documented store interaction are partially credited to the store or associate.
  • Measure incremental conversion, margin, return rate, time-to-purchase and repeat purchase by inferred motivation segment, not only channel conversion.

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