Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

For that typical showrooming shopper, the shopper will note the Best Buy price and will then gather rival pricing. Once that shopper has found what appears to be the best price, the shopper is likely to just make the purchase right there. Why make the trip back to Best Buy and hope to convince an associate to do a price-match, praying that the mobile screen captures or printouts are deemed sufficient? Again, Best Buy’s offer is merely to match that price. If the comparison shopper finds the desired product for $24.95, why go through that hassle to get a $24.95 price when the site is offering that price right away with no hassle? It’s not like Best Buy’s lure will deliver a lower price.

This is not much different than the car deal gimmick of price-matching. “Test drive it here and then get bids from five other places, come back here and we’ll match the lowest price—maybe.” The consumer response is, “Thanks, but no thanks. Tell me now the lowest price you’re offering on this car. If it’s good enough, I’ll sign right now. And if not, I’ll try and do better. Only if I fail to do better will I come back.”

The point of this is not that Best Buy would seriously do such a program. For starters, the chain doesn’t use electronic shelf labels, which would be essential for this kind of frequent price changes. And tracking the prices of all local competitors is quite a challenge, especially if they are brick-and-mortar-only operations. Using your own shoppers to effectively crowd-source competitor pricing is not a bad strategy.

No, the point isn’t that Best Buy should do this. The point is that this is the kind of extreme that would be needed for Best Buy to truly make a major dent in showrooming.

A Best Buy statement said this new program is “signaling the end of ‘showrooming.'” Bloomberg quoted Best Buy Spokesperson Matt Furman as saying, “There is no doubt that this new policy ends showrooming for Best Buy customers.” When we spoke with Best Buy Spokesperson Jeff Shelman, he echoed those comments, saying that the new program means Best Buy shoppers “won’t have any reason to showroom.”

Really? None at all? What if a shopper comes into Best Buy and the desired item is out of stock? No price-match. What if that shopper comes in and has yet to comparison shop? What if the shopper is already buying a half-dozen items from Amazon or Walmart.com and adding this one to the list will amount to free shipping?

Here’s a critical question, which is much harder to address with a policy change: What if the shopper simply doesn’t trust Best Buy as much as it trusts Amazon or Fry’s? Showrooming is about factors well beyond price, and this policy doesn’t even eliminate all of the price-only obstacles. (Although it certainly does a very good job, much better than it did in November.) This new policy is predicated on the theory that the lack of a decent online price-match program was the only thing fueling showrooming in the first place. It’s quite a bit more complex than that, and Best Buy certainly knows that.

This Best Buy effort will likely make a meaningful dent in its showrooming losses. But to truly slash showrooming (reality: complete elimination of showrooming is simply not mathematically possible) will require making the Best Buy shopping experience a much more pleasant, profitable and easy experience than working with a rival.

That involves strong customer service to generate trust and brand loyalty, something Best Buy has lost much of in recent years.

It needs confidence-building return policies (think Costco [NASDAQ:COST] and Nordstrom [NYSE:JWN]), which are a huge part of this as well. And that is why the cutting in half of the return period sharply undermines this effort. (Best Buy couldn’t have waited six months to do that, to give this program more of a chance?)

Huge inventory (which Best Buy does well on) and helpful well-trained associates (less so) are also key. Plus, pricing that is fair and does not smack of game-playing. Having high prices that will only be matched if the shoppers notices, asks about and has documentation to prove it, that hardly makes shoppers confident you’re not playing price games.