Numerator: Locked-up goods can lead to lost sales
More merchandise is being locked-up to deter theft — and shoppers are taking note.
Sixty-percent of shoppers report seeing locked-up merchandise on a regular basis, according to a report from Numerator, a data and tech company serving the market research space. And 27% said they would switch retailers or abandon the purchase altogether instead of waiting for assistance for a locked-up item.
The report, “Unlocking Shopper Reactions to Secured Products,” found that the most commonly observed locked-up items are personal electronics (58% of consumers report seeing), OTC medications (38%), physical media (36%), personal hygiene products (34%), makeup & cosmetics (33%), large electronics (32%) and accessories (29%).
The stores where consumers report seeing the most product lock-ups are mass retailers (68% of consumers), drug stores (62%), grocery stores (31%), department stores (25%) and home improvement stores (23%). Dollar stores (18%) see the lowest levels of lock-ups.
In other findings, drug stores provide better assistance accessing locked-up merchandise. At a retailer level, CVS (+16%), Walgreens (+12%) and Target (+12%) had the highest net ratings for easy assistance retrieving locked items, while Walmart (-13%) had the lowest. (Net ratings showcase the difference between the percent of consumers who say getting assistance is easy and the percent who say it is difficult.)
Additional findings from the Numerator report are below.
•More than a quarter of shoppers say a retailer loses their purchase when items are locked up. Sixty-two percent of shoppers say they typically wait for assistance when they encounter locked up merchandise, and 9% say they order the item online from that same retailer. However, 17% say they will switch retailers (10% online, 7% in-store), and 10% say they will abandon the purchase altogether.
•Shoppers are less willing to wait when everyday goods are locked up. Only 53% of shoppers say they'll wait for assistance if bath & body products are locked up, 56% for makeup and cosmetics and 57% for personal hygiene products.
•Shoppers are noticing more locked-up products than ever before. Sixty-one percent of shoppers reported seeing an increase in the number of products under lock and key over the past year; 33% have not noticed a change and 7% say there are fewer items locked up now.
•More than a quarter of shoppers say a retailer loses their purchase when items are locked up. 62% of shoppers say they typically wait for assistance when they encounter locked up merchandise, and 9% say they order the item online from that same retailer. However, 17% say they will switch retailers (10% online, 7% in-store), and 10% say they will abandon the purchase altogether.
•Shoppers are less willing to wait when everyday goods are locked up. Only 53% of shoppers say they'll wait for assistance if bath & body products are locked up, 56% for makeup and cosmetics, and 57% for personal hygiene products.
•Willingness to wait varies by generation, ethnicity, guardianship and retailer memberships. Sixty-nine percent of boomers will wait for assistance, compared to only 57% of millennials. Seventy-one percent of Black consumers will wait, compared to 58% of Asian consumers.
•Consumers in urban areas and the Western U.S. are encountering lock-ups more frequently. Thirty-five percent of Western consumers say they encounter locks on the items they are trying to purchase almost every time they shop and 30% of urban consumers say the same.
•Shoppers unwilling to wait spend more online. Shoppers who are not willing to wait for assistance when encountering a locked-up product spend 21% of their dollars online, compared to 18% for those who are willing to wait. Top banners also differ slightly between the groups, with non-waiters spending more at Amazon, Target and Walmart.com.
More than half of shoppers in some major Western metro areas report high levels of product locking: 54% in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area, 51% in Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise and 45% in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim. Metro areas with the lowest levels of reported product locking are Cleveland-Elyria (5%), Cincinnati (9%), Pittsburgh (11%), Columbus (13%) and Austin-Round Rock (13%).
Rural shoppers are more likely to report locks on electronics (62%) and physical media (41%), while urban shoppers are more likely to encounter them on personal hygiene products (41%), makeup (37%) and bath & body products (22%).
Among shoppers with children, those with kids in the 6-12 age range are the least likely to wait for assistance (58%).
Shoppers with retailer memberships such as Amazon Prime or Walmart+ are more likely to shift their purchases online when faced with locked products (22% vs. 19% for the average consumer).
Numerator’s Product Lockup survey was fielded to over 5,000 consumers in September 2024. It specified locked items as “items one may encounter when shopping in-store that are locked up for security measures and require employee assistance to get off the shelf/rack.”
