In-Store Salespeople Getting As Lonely As Maytag Repairmen, Thanks To Tech-Savvy Shoppers

The increased use of digital communications technology for in-store shopping is expected to remain a significant retail trend, according to Euromonitor International. Consumers are increasingly adept at using smartphones while shopping in stores, not to buy necessarily, but to acquire more information about products and prices. A key result of this trend is that, in developed countries at least, checking a website on a smartphone for product information in stores is now more common than consulting a salesperson, though talking to salespeople is not yet passé in emerging markets. Euromonitor also found that use of the QR code on products and advertisements to gather detailed product information is still relatively rare.