Retailers lock up products to prevent theft but how does this impact paying customers? Retailers are motivated to prevent shoplifting and organized retail crime. In 2024, Canadian retailers lost an estimated $9.1 billion to theft, with a major factor being organized groups stealing merchandise to resell. Theft is real, and shrink has been continuously increasing, making it necessary for retailers to protect their product.
Unfortunately, customers are feeling the repercussions. They are seeing locked cases as a barrier and abandoning their purchase. Locked cases destroy loyalty by making customers feel unwelcome and distrusted. 60% of in-store shoppers have faced locked products on a regular basis. The inconvenience of waiting, trying to find an employee, and then waiting for the employee again to unlock the product leads to abandoned carts. This has challenged retailers to make their in-store experience as convenient as a purchase online. In fact, 27% of shoppers said that they would go somewhere else or just not buy the item when coming across a locked showcase.
Retailers are losing more customers due to the friction in retail stores.
In retail, customers have the ability to touch and feel products, enabling a higher likelihood for stores to make the sale. The moment there is friction between the product and the customer, conversion decreases significantly.
If service isn’t prompt, customers will not wait.
Picture this: a customer wants to buy an expensive vacuum. They’ve done their research, tried the display unit and are ready to buy. But when it’s time to put the item in their cart, they can’t! Why? Because we’ve created a barrier to purchase that requires staff intervention to complete the sale. In this moment of friction, the purchase dies.
Retailers spend so billions on signage, promos, and beautiful displays to drive foot traffic. But if these locked products are preventing the customer from purchasing, all this money and effort goes to waste.
How can we set a higher standard for in-store experience?
Retailers can turn these moments of friction into loyalty-building interactions by responding quickly. When an employee arrives and solves the request effortlessly, there is an opportunity to build loyalty through knowledgeable service that e-commerce companies can’t replicate online.
If customers can easily find help, their perception of retail changes, trust is built, making it more likely for them to come back, as well as tell others about their seamless experience.
A customer’s loyalty builds quietly, not just through point programs, but through these easy, helpful interactions at moments that matter, like locked showcases.
We created Meerby to eliminate customer friction and loss of sales due to locked products, without compromising on theft prevention. Locked showcases don’t have to end the shopping journey if customers can easily get help.
Meerby is designed for these high-friction moments. When a shopper wants a locked item, they simply press a button on the showcase. This doesn’t trigger a vague PA call; instead, the alert goes directly to the right employee, based on who’s nearby, available, and qualified. This avoids confusion, delays, and pulling staff from critical areas.
For customers, the experience is fast, easy, and smooth. For staff, it’s a smarter way to manage tasks without guesswork or overload. For managers, Meerby reveals patterns over time. It highlights peak request periods, key access gaps, and response times, enabling better staffing, scheduling, and fewer lost sales.
With the right tools, it’s possible to protect both inventory and the customer experience. Through smart routing, faster response times, and real-time visibility, Meerby turns moments of friction into moments of ease, without losing the human touch.
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Retailers lock up high-theft items like electronics, razors, and cosmetics to reduce shrink caused by shoplifting and organized retail crime.
Yes. Locked products create friction at the point of purchase, often leading to customer frustration, longer wait times, and abandoned sales.
Smart tech like Meerby sends targeted requests to the right associate instantly, reducing wait times and helping customers complete their purchase with ease.
On average, shoppers wait around 7.7 minutes for an employee to unlock a product
Meerby uses intelligent buttons and routing to instantly notify the right employee when help is needed, reducing wait times and saving the sale.
Most customers will walk away or choose to buy the product online instead, often from a competitor with a better in-store experience.
