顾客光顾商店只是为了选好商品，然后回家在网上以优惠价把它们买下来。多年来，商家们都窝着一肚子火。这种现象非常普遍，以致于有了一个专门的说法——展厅现象。

    随着智能手机大行其道，这种现象愈演愈烈。例如，顾客可以用手机迅速将一家实体店的Fossil手提包与亚马逊（Amazon）上同款手提包的价格进行对比。商店经理对此无能为力。在这场价格战中，顾客取得了胜利。

    一些商家意识到了他们的失败，于是态度来了个180度大转弯，开始帮助顾客上网。就在圣诞季之前，像塔吉特（Target）、彭尼公司（J.C. Penney）和萨克斯第五大道精品百货店（Saks Fifth Avenue）这样的大型零售商在全店安装了免费的WiFi。梅西百货（Macy’s）和山姆会员店（Sam's Club）去年就安装了WiFi，而诺德斯特姆公司（Nordstrom）早在2010年就已经抢先一步。塔吉特的发言人艾迪•巴伯说：“顾客的潮流是什么，我们就要做到什么。” 今年秋天，该公司已经在旗下1,780家门店内安装了Wifi。“我们自己预订销售的时候，也喜欢展厅现象。”

    如果说有什么不同的话，那么零售商是最晚一个加入到这场游戏中来的。咖啡厅、快餐店和机场早在几年前就开始提供免费的WiFi，体育馆和大学也是如此。竞争压力显然是零售商接受WiFi的原因之一。而在几家零售连锁店提供无线网络之后，其他商家因担心顾客流失也匆忙效仿。公开地说，零售店提供WiFi为那些不愿使用手机数据流量的顾客带来了更多便利；有些商店就像山洞一样，有时手机信号很糟糕，这时，WiFi就好比给它们上了一道保险。

    究竟有多少顾客实际上使用了店内的WiFi还不清楚。大多数零售商都拒绝透露使用其网络的人数、顾客浏览的网页数，以及可能引起尴尬的数据：顾客有多频繁地访问竞争对手的网站。萨克斯第五大道精品百货店与美国电话电报公司（AT&T）合作，在44家门店内安装了WiFi，他们更愿意提供这方面的信息。在9月宣布无线服务工程完工后，该公司宣称在过去10个月内，已经提供了500万次网络连接。

    最近走访旧金山几家百货商店发现：零售商为顾客提供WiFi的形式有很大的差异。很难说清大多数顾客到底有没有注意到它们的存在。萨克斯第五大道精品百货店并未提供任何指示，告知顾客他们提供WiFi。想要知道它的存在，唯一的办法就是用你的智能手机查看可用的网络。塔吉特在这点上做得稍好一些，商店入口的屏幕上偶尔会闪过他们提供免费WiFi的提示。

    For years, retailers frowned on shoppers visiting their stores merely to scope out products before returning home and buying them online for less. The phenomenon became so common that it earned a name -- showrooming.

    The practice has only expanded with the proliferation of smartphones. Shoppers can use them to quickly compare the price of a Fossil handbag, for example, with the same version on Amazon.com (AMZN). There's nothing store managers can do to stop them. The shoppers have won the war.

    Recognizing their defeat, many retailers have made a u-turn and are now helping shoppers get online. Just before the holiday season, big retailers like Target (TGT), J.C. Penney (JCP) and Saks Fifth Avenue (SKS) installed free Wi-Fi throughout their stores. Macy's (M) and Sam's Club (WMT) deployed Wi-Fi last year while Nordstrom (JWN) did so in 2010. 

"It's where guests are going and where we need to be," said Eddie Baeb, a spokesman for Target, which finished installing Wi-Fi at its 1,780 stores this fall. "We love showrooming when we're the ones booking the sales."

    If anything, retailers are late to the game. Cafes, fast food restaurants and airports have offered free Wi-Fi for years. So have sports stadiums and universities. Competitive pressure clearly played a role in pushing big retailers to adopt Wi-Fi. After a few retail chains added it, others quickly followed for fear that they would lose customers. 

Publically, retailers tout Wi-Fi as more of a convenience for shoppers who may otherwise be reluctant to eat into the limits on their smartphone data plans. It's also an insurance policy against the sometimes spotty mobile phone reception inside cavernous stores.

    How many shoppers actually use in-store Wi-Fi is unclear. Most retailers declined to share information about the number of people accessing their networks, the number of pages they viewed or the potentially embarrassing statistic: How often people visited the sites of rivals. Saks Fifth Avenue, which has equipped its 44 stores with Wi-Fi in partnership with AT&T (T), was a little more forthcoming. In announcing the completion of its network roll out in September, the company said it had enabled over 5 million connections during the previous 10 months.

    A recent visit to several San Francisco department stores showed a wide disparity in how retailers market Wi-Fi to shoppers. Whether most customers are even aware it exists is tough to say. 

Saks Fifth Avenue's men's store failed to put up any signs about its Wi-Fi. The only way to know it existed was to see the network listed among those available on your smartphone. 

Target earned slightly higher marks by occasionally flashing messages about its free Wi-Fi on a video screen at the entrance to its store.

    不过顾客似乎并没有留意。梅西百货在一些大门上粘贴了告示，提醒顾客“内有WiFi”。然而在服装货架上并没有安放任何标牌，提示该百货公司提供无线网络。

    顾客想要连接网络，首先需要同意出现在他们手机屏幕上的一系列服务条款。一般来说，协议都会声明网络并不安全，商店会跟踪顾客访问的网站和使用的设备类型。

    室内定位服务供应商Nearbuy Systems的董事长布莱恩•瓦格说，这些数据最终将被用于帮助商店提供个性化的优惠券，同时确定需要加入货架的商品。Nearbuy Systems是一家新成立的企业，帮助商店监控顾客在使用WiFi时的行为，同时分析所得数据。比如，顾客经常使用WiFi访问竞争对手的网页，查看红色的开司米羊毛衫，这就提醒商店该开始囤积这类货物了。

    瓦格说：“商家能够了解哪些商品正在被‘展览’，他们可以问问自己：‘我是不是该降价了？’‘我是不是应该给顾客打折？’”根据瓦格的说法，有很多商店正在使用Nearbuy的产品，不过他拒绝透露他们的名字。所有受访商店都声称所搜集的数据仅用于防范黑客。

    弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester）的分析师萨查瑞塔•穆尔普鲁对WiFi数据的价值表示怀疑，并警告道称手机营销市场只是刚刚起步。她提到了杂货店，那些商店长期使用忠诚度项目来追踪个人的购物习惯——可是成效有限。穆尔普鲁说：“无论从哪点来看，杂货店都已经持有这些信息很多年了。不过他们仍然只是在货架上标明折扣，而不是给顾客一个定制的优惠。”

    WiFi在店内还远未普及。比如Gap公司的门店，包括Gap、香蕉共和国（Banana Republic）和老海军（Old Navy），都未提供WiFi。百思买（Bust Buy）也只在部分门店提供WiFi。与此同时，小型企业往往不会提供WiFi。

    为了填补这一空白，Facebook正在测试一个项目，向商家分发无线路由器，让他们自己建立网络。然而这个项目也附带了条件。想要使用网络，顾客需要首先在Facebook上签到，让Facebook确定自己的位置，然后才会跳转到该商店的Facebook页面。只有这样，顾客才能使用网络访问其他网站。

    审计和商业咨询公司德勤（Deloitte）负责消费者业务的领导凯西•罗保提出了相反意见，认为WiFi的好处还没有得到充分认识。他说，商业机遇要远远超过通过移动设备进行的直接销售。根据德勤对1,557名智能手机用户的调查，在店内使用手机的顾客，只有14%更愿意在那家店里购买商品。而如果他们使用了店内专有的网络或是应用，就有33%的可能在当日就把商品买走。

    However, shoppers didn't seem to pay attention. 

Macy's affixed stickers that announced "free Wi-Fi inside" on some of its doors. But there were no signs among the racks of clothes mentioning the network.

    To connect to a network, shoppers must first agree to a terms of service that appears on their smartphone screens. The agreement generally spells out that the network is not secure and that the stores will track the Web sites customers visit and the type of devices they use.

    Such data could eventually be used to help stores offer personalized coupons and identify merchandise to add to their shelves, said Bryan Wargo, chief executive of Nearbuy Systems, a start-up that helps stores monitor customer behavior on Wi-Fi networks and dissect the data. Customers frequently using the Wi-Fi network to search a rival's Web site for red cashmere sweaters, for instance, could signal that the store should start stocking them.

    "Merchants can understand which products are being showroomed," Wargo said. "They can ask themselves 'Should I reduce the price? Should I offer the customer a specific discount?'"

A number of stores are testing Nearbuy's product, according to Wargo, but he declined to name any of them. No stores interviewed acknowledged using the information they collect to do anything except to keep out hackers.

    Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester (FORR), was skeptical about the value of Wi-Fi data and cautioned that mobile marketing was still in its infancy. She pointed to grocery stores, which have long used loyalty programs to track individuals' shopping habits -- to limited success. "Grocery stores have, for all intents and purposes, had this information for years," Mulpuru said. "But they still just put a discount on the shelf rather than give you a customized one."

    Wi-Fi is far from universal inside stores. For example, Gap Inc.'s (GPS) stores, which include Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, do not offer it. At Best Buy (BBY), availability varies by store. Small businesses, meanwhile, are often a black hole when it comes to Wi-Fi.

    To fill in the gap, Facebook (FB) is testing a program to give away wireless routers to merchants so they can set up a network. The program comes with some strings, however. To use the network, customers must first check in their location on Facebook. They are then diverted to the business' Facebook page. Only then can customers use the network to visit other Web sites.

    Kasey Lobaugh, who leads the direct to consumer practice at Deloitte, the auditing and business consulting company, countered that the benefit of Wi-Fi is underappreciated. The opportunity for businesses far exceeds direct sales through mobile devices, he said.

    People who use their smartphones in a store are 14% more likely to make a purchase from that retailer, according to a survey by Deloitte of 1,557 smartphone owners. If they use a store's specific Web site or app while inside, they are 33% more likely to purchase an item that day.

    例如，在很多情况下，顾客可以使用店内的网络更快地访问网络，查询那些网上可能缺货或断码的商品。他说，考虑到手机的巨大影响和提升销量的能力，零售商提供WiFi是具有商业意义的。

    罗保说：“掌握更多信息的顾客在做出购买决定时更加放心，人们关于‘展厅现象’的传统观点是错误的。”

    译者：严匡正

    Shoppers can get a faster connection than their mobile carrier offers, in many cases, to check on items online that may be out of stock or unavailable in the correct size, for example. Given the huge influence of mobile and its ability to lift sales, it makes financial sense for retailers to offer Wi-Fi, he said.

    "More informed consumers are more confident in their purchasing decision," Lobaugh said. "Conventional wisdom about showrooming is wrong."