Buying behavior
Survey: Every third party has already “stolen” advice in the trade
Get advice in the shop on site, but then buy cheaper online? Painful for the dealers. This means that consumers are included.
Around every third consumer in Germany has already been advised in stationary trade and then bought the corresponding product online after a price comparison. This emerges from a representative YouGov survey on behalf of the German Press Agency. In the trade, this behavior is also called “consulting theft”.
Almost half of the respondents refuse such behavior entirely (21 percent) or (25 percent). On the other hand, nine percent rather advocate advice in stationary trade and then buy the corresponding product online. Five percent of the respondents are fully supported. Undecided (answer: “partly / partly”) was 34 percent.
What does the trade association say about the “advisory nation”?
“When I invest a lot of money as a stationary retailer in the shop rent and in competent staff, it is of course very painful if customers only compensate for advice and then go shopping online with other providers,” said Stefan Genth, General Manager at the German Trade Association (HDE).
As big as the pain is in every individual case, the reverse phenomenon occurs more often. Customers informed themselves online and then bought on site. “Customers decide where to find out and where they want to shop,” said Genth. That is the basis of free and fair competition.
dpa
Source: Stern
