Fight Rising Retail Shrink With Sensor Technology

By Ben Reynolds

Retailers are grappling with an escalating challenge: retail shrink caused by theft and fraud. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, the shoplifting rate during the first half of 2024 was 24% higher, on average, than during the same period in 2023. Moreover, 51% of retailers in Retail TouchPoints’ 2024 Store Ops Survey cited managing and preventing theft as a top in-store challenge.

Factors like inflation and economic pressures have contributed to this troubling rise. To combat retail shrink effectively, adopting sensor technology such as Walkbase TREQ can play a pivotal role in reducing losses and enhancing store operations.

Here are four ways Walkbase TREQ can help:

Identify Suspicious Behavior

Where are customers going, and what are they doing in your store?

Sensor technology used by Walkbase TREQ enables retailers to track and analyze normal pathing and dwell-time behaviors, making it easier to spot anomalies. For instance, if a customer heads directly to a high-value section like beauty products and leaves the store without visiting other areas, this could indicate potential theft. Walkbase TREQ uses in-store behavioral data analytics to flag such patterns, allowing for real-time intervention.

Monitor Checkout Experience

Checkout areas are another critical point for preventing shrink. Sensors placed near checkout lanes provide insights into:

  • Wait times and lane switching.
  • Bounce rates when customers abandon carts.
  • Instances where carts or baskets are taken out of the store without purchases being completed.

By analyzing this in-store behavioral data, retailers can refine checkout operations to enhance the user experience while reducing opportunities for theft.

Tag High-Value Assets

High-value items are often prime targets for theft, but Walkbase TREQ offers a robust solution. With Bluetooth asset tags, retailers can track not only individual items but also shopping carts, valuable store equipment, employees and even entire pallets of products within the store. This continuous tracking ensures you always know the precise location of your inventory and essential personnel so you can take swift action if an asset moves unexpectedly or leaves the premises.

For example, consider a retail store selling high-value electronics like premium headphones. If a customer lingers unusually long in the aisle, Walkbase’s sensors can detect this abnormal dwell time, alerting staff to investigate before someone attempts to open the packaging. Similarly, in a grocery store, Walkbase can monitor a shopping cart left in an odd location for too long, flagging potential theft or intentional product abandonment. These proactive alerts allow retailers to step in early, reducing losses, improving inventory management and creating a safer, more secure shopping environment.

See Data in Real Time

By integrating in-store analytics, Walkbase TREQ helps retailers move beyond reactive loss prevention methods. The data collected doesn’t just enhance security; it also enables smarter decision-making. For example, insights from in-store behavioral data can guide the placement of staff or security personnel in high-risk zones, reducing opportunities for theft. Retailers can monitor dashboards to:

  • Receive instant alerts for suspicious behavior.
  • Identify trends to inform future loss prevention strategies.
  • Pinpoint areas where additional staffing or security measures, such as cameras or locks, may be necessary.

This immediate access to data empowers retailers to respond swiftly and proactively to potential theft and fraud, reducing losses and improving store operations. A data-driven approach also ensures that retailers stay ahead of emerging threats while maintaining a seamless shopping experience for customers.

The Path Forward

Retailers can’t afford to rely solely on traditional loss prevention methods as theft and fraud continue to rise. By adopting sensor technology like Walkbase TREQ, businesses can protect their assets, ensure a safe shopping environment and gain critical insights into customer behavior.

As the retail landscape evolves, so must the tools used to safeguard it. With Walkbase TREQ’s powerful combination of sensor technology and in-store analytics, retailers have the tools they need to fight back against retail shrink and thrive in a challenging environment.

About the Author

Ben Reynolds leads the Walkbase business, an analytics and AI platform, for STRATACACHE. He is a proven marketing and technology executive having previously held executive positions at Sara Lee, PRN (largest in-store media provider), Hooklogic (first sponsored ads outside of Amazon, now part of Criteo), and Maxpoint (digital marketer leveraging a proprietary identity graph now part of Vericast).

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