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The purpose of this chapter is to examine the phenomenon of “showrooming” in which shoppers use mobile devices in retail stores to check prices and other data on products that they then may buy online.

We conducted depth interviews with 50 consumers, 13 small retailers, and 6 large retailers.

We identified four distinct behavioral groups of customers and six strategies small retailers are currently using or could use to address the potential problems showrooming can create. We also identified a new type of reference pricing.

This research provides a guide researchers can use in further work on showrooming. The research consists of depth interviews. It is possible that other types of retailers may have developed other strategies not identified here or that a larger number of non-student participants would have identified other categories, though differences between students and non-students in our sample were not noteworthy.

This chapter provides a practical guide to small retailers as to how they can deal with the growing practice of showrooming, helping them to choose strategic responses based on the types of consumers they serve.

This is one of the first papers to be published in an academic journal on the value of showrooming. It provides a typology of consumers grouped by their behavior, that is, how and why they engage or don’t engage in showrooming. This can help academic researchers in future research as well as managers of small retail businesses. We also identified a new, third type of reference pricing.

Retail prices ending in 0, 5 (even ending), and 9 (odd ending) are common in western countries. The purpose of this paper is to explain variances in odd versus even ending practices in western versus non‐western countries, using Hall's high‐low context construct.

A survey of web‐posted prices in ten countries is conducted.

Relative to their counterparts in low context, western cultures, consumers in high context, non‐western cultures may be less prone to the illusion of cheapness or gain created by odd endings, and more likely offended by such perceived attempts to “fool” them. Thus, odd endings are predicted to operate at a higher level of value significance to consumers, and to occur less frequently relative to even endings, in high than low, context cultures. Data support the predictions.

Additional empirical studies are recommended to further test the proposed theory.

Western firms need to be cautious when replicating odd ending practices in non‐western markets. Even ending is a “safer” pricing format. Odd endings, if used, should convey cheapness or gain that is more “real”.

The research results indicate that the results of western‐based consumer research cannot be treated as universally applicable. The high‐low context theory supplements prior theories for price ending patterns in non‐western countries, and those based on perceptions and affect in the west. The study also demonstrates the usefulness of the web method in international pricing research.