Don't get in your customer's way.

I was at a major retailer this evening. To be specific, it was Fred Meyer's. For those who aren't familiar with them, they are similar to smaller version of Target or Walmart.

I was in the market for a few new pairs of jeans. They had some I was interested in trying on. I took them off the shelf, and headed towards the fitting rooms. To my dismay, they were locked.

A button was placed by the door which I could press to summon for help - but, I just didn't feel like it. I just wanted to get my jeans and go. I didn't want to deal with waiting for an employee to show up and open the door. Worse, I could end up having to repeat the entire process 3 or 4 times before finding the correct size.

So, they lost my sale.

Of course, there is a trade-off here. The reason the doors were locked were clearly to minimize issues with theft. Maybe they make more money with the doors locked than without. Maybe they haven't done, or aren't able to easily do the required marketing analysis to find out.

The lesson still stands. If you place barriers in front of your customer they must hurdle over before purchasing, you will lose sales.

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