Consumers are practicing a concept called 'showrooming', where they interact with a product in a store, then purchase the same product online - often from a competitor. Lamine Lahouasnia, retailing analyst at Euromonitor, states that showrooming is becoming more of a problem in the advent of smartphones, which give consumers mobile internet access, and thus the ability to research competitor prices without leaving the store. Lahouasnia also explains several methods that retailers are implementing to compete with this practice.

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