Every retailer knows the scenario and, frankly, every shopper reading this has lived it too.
A customer is ready to buy. They just need one question answered. One product recommendation. One locked showcase opened. One minute of help from someone who has the skill, expertise, or access they need.
But there’s no one around. They look up and down the aisle. They wait. They wander. And then… they leave.
That’s not just a lost sale. It’s a customer who came to your store with intent to purchase and walked out empty-handed because you couldn’t close the loop at their exact moment of need.
For retailers, this is happening multiple times a day, every single day. And it’s costing them.
The Moment of Need Problem
Here’s the reality: customers don’t need help on your schedule. They need it at their point of need. Right when they’re standing in front of a product. Right when they have a question. Right when they’re ready to make a decision.
Traditional retail tools weren’t built for this. Call buttons force customers to do the leg work to find them, only to go unanswered. Overhead pages get ignored. Customers have to hunt down staff, and most don’t bother. They just leave.
The sale was there. The intent was there. Your team just didn’t have the tools they needed to get there.
Built to Close the Loop
Here’s where Ottawa innovation comes in.
Meerby’s roots are on the retail floor. Co-founders Allan and Elizabeth Malcomson are siblings whose parents opened the Canadian Tire in Kanata in 1996. Growing up in the business, they watched sales walk out the door every day. Not because the team wasn’t great, but because traditional call buttons simply couldn’t connect the right employee to the right customer fast enough. Meerby is the solution they wished they’d had.
“We lived this problem every single day on the floor. Customers were ready to buy, and we were losing them, not because we didn’t have great people, but because we had no way to get the right person to the right customer at the right moment. That’s what drove us to build Meerby.” – Allan Malcomson, Co-Founder, Meerby
Based in Kanata and part of L-SPARK’s 11th cohort, Meerby has grown from an internal solution to a platform serving retailers across North America.
The platform gives customers a way to ask for help at their exact point of need. No hunting for staff. No waiting and hoping someone notices them. The customer signals they need help, and help comes to them.
But Meerby doesn’t just alert someone, it routes the request to the right someone. The platform analyzes availability, proximity, and expertise in real-time, then sends the best person to that customer immediately.
Someone who’s available, nearby, and actually knows the answer or has the skill needed to complete the request. All this happens in the backend, and the system is designed to close the loop in 90 seconds.
Fast. Targeted. Closed.
The platform also tracks request and response data at the granular level, so managers can see how their team is operating, identify bottlenecks, and address them.
Intelligence Built in Ottawa
The economics of retail have never been tighter. Labour costs are rising. Customers come to physical stores specifically because they want to see products and get expert advice before buying. When you can’t deliver that help at their point of need, they don’t buy, and they don’t come back.
Ottawa retailers, grocers, big-box stores, hardware stores, are competing against online giants. The advantage for agile retailers? The ability to adopt innovative technology quickly and gain a genuine competitive edge.
And when that technology is built right here in Ottawa? Even better.
“What excites me most is seeing the impact on the store floor. When a retailer turns Meerby on, their team starts closing requests they didn’t even know they were missing. It’s not just about technology, it’s about empowering and enhancing our talented retail teams, not replacing them.” – Elizabeth Malcomson, Co-Founder, Meerby
While the recent national conversation about technological sovereignty has focused on government systems and critical infrastructure, there’s an equally important story about Canadian innovation serving Canadian businesses.
Ottawa has always punched above its weight in tech. This city has built telecommunications infrastructure, cybersecurity solutions, and government platforms. Now we’re building the intelligent systems that help retailers compete and thrive.
The Opportunity
For Ottawa-area retailers, this represents a chance to adopt technology that converts customer intent into revenue, increase customer satisfaction, optimize labour, and choose innovation built in your own backyard.
The customer standing in your store right now is ready to buy. They just need help.
The question is: are you going to get there in time?
Retailers interested in learning more about closing the loop on customer requests can connect with Meerby to explore how the platform drives sales in their stores.
Content provided by Meerby
