The change is 'buy' not 'sell' (not the internet specifically)

the source of information used to be the salesperson. They went to the training and poured over the literature to be able to impart the info to the customer. Now, with online information and opinions, nothing is available to the salesperson that the customer doesn't have access to. Even pricing is easily obtained. Now it's just a matter of finding the best online price, and seeing which store will match it. I'ts hard to even justify the reason to be 1% more expensive than the other place. Do retailers add any value to the transaction, via warranties, return policy, or after-sales assistance to justify a higher price than online?