????顧客光顧商店只是為了選好商品，然后回家在網上以優惠價把它們買下來。多年來，商家們都窩著一肚子火。這種現象非常普遍，以致于有了一個專門的說法——展廳現象。

????隨著智能手機大行其道，這種現象愈演愈烈。例如，顧客可以用手機迅速將一家實體店的Fossil手提包與亞馬遜（Amazon）上同款手提包的價格進行對比。商店經理對此無能為力。在這場價格戰中，顧客取得了勝利。

????一些商家意識到了他們的失敗，于是態度來了個180度大轉彎，開始幫助顧客上網。就在圣誕季之前，像塔吉特（Target）、彭尼公司（J.C. Penney）和薩克斯第五大道精品百貨店（Saks Fifth Avenue）這樣的大型零售商在全店安裝了免費的WiFi。梅西百貨（Macy’s）和山姆會員店（Sam's Club）去年就安裝了WiFi，而諾德斯特姆公司（Nordstrom）早在2010年就已經搶先一步。塔吉特的發言人艾迪?巴伯說：“顧客的潮流是什么，我們就要做到什么。” 今年秋天，該公司已經在旗下1,780家門店內安裝了Wifi。“我們自己預訂銷售的時候，也喜歡展廳現象。”

????如果說有什么不同的話，那么零售商是最晚一個加入到這場游戲中來的。咖啡廳、快餐店和機場早在幾年前就開始提供免費的WiFi，體育館和大學也是如此。競爭壓力顯然是零售商接受WiFi的原因之一。而在幾家零售連鎖店提供無線網絡之后，其他商家因擔心顧客流失也匆忙效仿。公開地說，零售店提供WiFi為那些不愿使用手機數據流量的顧客帶來了更多便利；有些商店就像山洞一樣，有時手機信號很糟糕，這時，WiFi就好比給它們上了一道保險。

????究竟有多少顧客實際上使用了店內的WiFi還不清楚。大多數零售商都拒絕透露使用其網絡的人數、顧客瀏覽的網頁數，以及可能引起尷尬的數據：顧客有多頻繁地訪問競爭對手的網站。薩克斯第五大道精品百貨店與美國電話電報公司（AT&T）合作，在44家門店內安裝了WiFi，他們更愿意提供這方面的信息。在9月宣布無線服務工程完工后，該公司宣稱在過去10個月內，已經提供了500萬次網絡連接。

????最近走訪舊金山幾家百貨商店發現：零售商為顧客提供WiFi的形式有很大的差異。很難說清大多數顧客到底有沒有注意到它們的存在。薩克斯第五大道精品百貨店并未提供任何指示，告知顧客他們提供WiFi。想要知道它的存在，唯一的辦法就是用你的智能手機查看可用的網絡。塔吉特在這點上做得稍好一些，商店入口的屏幕上偶爾會閃過他們提供免費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.