Improved security

Security tags and labels that attach to packaging have always played an important role in protecting merchandise, which is of crucial importance to any successful retailer.

Retailers know that preventing shoplifting is key to ensuring profitability, but they’re also aware of how important it is that their efforts in this area don’t damage the overall consumer experience.

Of course, the retailer can’t sell a stolen item, but an item placed behind a cabinet or covered with a large tag is also less likely to be sold.

It’s for this reason that a sophisticated response is needed to tackle shoplifting, fraud and organised crime, which cost British retailers £4.9 billion in the 12 months to June last year, according to The Global Retail Theft Barometer, published by the Centre for Retail Research.

Simply placing all merchandise in cabinets behind lock and key would most likely detract from the shopper experience to such an extent that any money saved through preventing theft would be cancelled out through loss of sales.

Fortunately, advancements in retail technology mean that products can be protected against theft without having to detract from the shopper experience, with goods able to be displayed safely in an open environment.

It was once the case that retailers were forced to use a large security label in order to ensure a good detection rate.

This posed a challenge for retailers because it’s vital that expensive brand pack designs aren’t obstructed, and absolutely crucial that key information such as ingredient panels or age restrictions are not obscured – something that could have legal ramifications.

Having to make a choice between properly securing a product against theft or ensuring its key branding messages are not obscured would be an unacceptable compromise for retailers, which is why technological developments in this area have been so crucial.

Clear label solutions, for instance, offer an improved theft detection rate and are now so advanced that it would be difficult to obscure brand messages with them.

Another valuable solution for retailers and brands is source tagging, which involves labels being applied to a product’s packaging during the manufacturing process. This helps ensure labels don’t cover essential information and, by ensuring products arrive shelf ready, it means staff can focus on selling items rather than tagging them.

These improvements in labelling technology and the way labels are applied reflect a wider truth: innovation is continually offering important developments in our industry.

Other examples include a new tag for jewellery that not only attaches to the packaging, but to the item of jewellery as well. This means stealing an item is not only more difficult but also less worthwhile, since attempting to forcibly remove the tag is likely to damage the jewellery, rendering it useless for resale.

Whereas previously thieves would steal jewellery by simply separating items from their packaging, there is now a solution to address this vulnerability.

Before this solution was developed, a store owner could have placed all jewellery inside a locked cabinet. However, it is likely that this approach would mean more money lost as a result of a poorer shopper experience than that saved through the prevention of shoplifting.

The central issue is that key packaging security developments are not important only because they are more advanced technologically, but because they can make a real difference to a business’ bottom line.

Items such as jewellery, where aesthetic appearance is paramount, can now be presented safely in an open environment that allows customers to interact with the products – which will undoubtedly have a positive effect on sales.

The impact shoplifting has on a retailer’s bottom line cannot be underestimated. Of course, a stolen item means the loss of profit on its potential sale. The damage is greater than this, however. For instance, a shopper who finds the item they were looking for might continue to browse the store and pick up something else. If an item is missing because it’s been stolen, the shopper is likely to simply leave the store.

This could also have an impact on a shopper’s future buying habits – they may no longer shop in the store with the missing item, choosing to spend their money with other retailers that reliably stock the items they’re looking for.

It’s clear, therefore, that advanced packaging security solutions are meeting real business needs. Products can be more secure, and also more effectively serve a branding purpose; more difficult to steal and less easy to sell on if stolen. In short, packaging security solutions can play an indispensable role in protecting profits.

Views expressed on this page are those of the author and may not be shared by this publication.