Paper Title
A Game Theoretic Analysis Towards Countering the Ill-Effects of “Showrooming”

Abstract
“Showrooming” as a multi-channel retailing phenomenon has been growing in importance over the last few years. Consumers nowadays use the brick and mortar store to research about a product before purchasing it online. This leads to the offline stores being converted into showrooms for the online retailers. Because of this, the brick and mortar retailer does not have much incentive to expend sales effort which leads to decline in the showcasing of the product to the consumers. This affects the overall demand of the product in the market. We investigate the feasibility of a manufacturer-driven alliance with the brick and mortar retailer to counter the ill effects of showrooming so that the brick and mortar retailer expends adequate sales effort that leads to higher demand and a dedicated consumer base. We derive a three-parameter contract that can coordinate the channel and provide win-win for the manufacturer as well as the brick and mortar retailer Index Terms - Multi-channel retail, Showrooming, Game theory, Contract.