Stepping out in today’s society can be a sobering reminder of our Covid-19 circumstances, but also a comedic flashback to our childhood woes – Don’t. Touch. Anything! (or anyone!) Contactless experiences have emerged as the top priority for businesses. Restaurants are providing QR codes for contact-free menus, airlines have transitioned to contact-free bag drops & check-in, and colleague-free happy hours courtesy of Zoom and Microsoft™ Teams are all the rage. Seems you can’t even enter into a building without first being greeted by a bottle of hand sanitizer.
The fact is contactless experiences were on the rise long before the pandemic. Early adopters embraced what would eventually become retail’s digital transformation. Younger, tech-savvy, consumers showed interest in ditching traditional shopping practices in favor of digital and contact-free experiences. In 2020, COVID-19 became a catalyst for the rapid expansion of contact-free offerings. Consumers are just rethinking how they want to experience retail. There is a real fear about the high-touch nature of retail shopping. “We believe there will be an accelerated adoption, coming from retailer push and customer demand in this space,” says Rob Harrold, senior manager with Deloitte’s strategy and operations practice. “What was more of a convenience option has now turned to a ‘safety’ feature” (NRF.com). This evolution helped overcome a very serious threat, enabling essential retail businesses to remain open, during the height of the pandemic. More importantly, the advancement in payment systems, social distancing protocols, barriers, and contact-free experiences kept customers and employees safe.
Unfortunately, the pandemic also claims responsibility for another threat to retail businesses. Since the onset of COVID-19, instances of retail theft have also increased. Some of the most disturbing retail theft trends reflected in the 2020 National Retail Security Survey are likely to worsen as the fallout from the pandemic continues to strain the economy and push people into more desperate situations. More and more reports of shoplifter violence are making headlines all highlighting that engaging a thief poses a significant safety risk to retail employees:
Retail has very long history. As long as people have existed, they have been bartering, sharing, selling, and…stealing goods. To say, “a lot has happened between then and now,” is an understatement. Retail has reinvented itself many times over, each time adapting and evolving to the needs of the customer. Loss Prevention / Asset protection, a critically important function of retail, has a similar story – each time evolving to the needs of the business. Yesterday’s LP/AP leaders focused primarily on security and investigations. More recently, LP/AP executives have been tasked with driving profitability and safety in all areas of the business. Today, they operate in a retail environment that has been ravaged by Covid-19. With retail theft and shoplifter violence at an all-time high, loss prevention leaders are looking for answers.
It is time for Loss Prevention to evolve again, LP executives should be looking at how society, and the retail industry has transformed. It went contact-free.
So, what options do LP / AP executives have to minimize theft and keep employees safe while adhering to the “hands off” and social distancing policies they are charged with enforcing?
Contact-free solutions, like Gatekeeper Systems’ Purchek™ system are being adopted by retailers everywhere. The solution prevents cart-based theft by locking one or more wheels on any shopping cart that attempts to exit a store without passing through a working checkout. The disabled cart ensures the merchandise stays in the store while eliminating the need for contact or confrontation with a potentially dangerous shoplifter.
Gatekeeper is helping a growing number of global retailers understand and solve these cart-based crimes that they believe are far more common than previously understood or measured. Gatekeeper recently conducted a ten-week study in a major US supermarket to prove just that point. A Purchek system was installed and run in a surveillance mode for a number of weeks and then activated, the volume of theft and number of repeat offenders the system identified was alarming, however the decrease in theft events upon activation was immediate and to date lasting. The high level ROI on the Purchek system was undeniable! The system retained merchandise and eliminated the need for contact or confrontation regardless of who was pushing the cart or what was in it. We encourage you to checkout this impressive case study: cliquez ici
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