There’s little doubt Covid-19 has resulted in rising tension levels and increased stress at every level of society, but few industries have borne the brunt quite so much as retail.

Since the pandemic first began, retail staff have been forced to cope with panic buying, increased hygiene concerns, a rise in shoplifting and theft, and recent heightened racial tensions.

So how can retailers handle aggressive customers and what strategies should they put in place?

When most retailers consider adopting or upgrading electronic article surveillance (EAS), the catalyst is loss prevention. Quite simply, the security tags, labels and antenna utilised in EAS protect individual products against theft.

But in protecting a store against loss, EAS also helps improve the customer experience in a host of ways. Here’s an insight into how that works.

The true cost of retail loss

It’s common knowledge retail loss costs the industry billions. In the US that estimated figure currently sits at $50.6 billion or 1.38 per cent of sales revenue, according to the latest National Retail Security Survey.

But what’s often less understood and harder to measure are the hidden costs of retail theft. Shoplifting can cost a retailer in terms of staff time, out of stock events, brand reputation, customer safety, and store appeal.

All these factors affect the quality of the customer experience that retailers are working so hard to deliver in an age of competition both in the real world and online.

To break it down, here’s are five ways EAS can improve the customer experience…

Product cost

Shoplifting is often mistakenly considered a victimless crime. Of course, that’s far from the truth. When retailers incur major losses due to theft, that loss has to be countered elsewhere in the provision of goods.

Most often, that loss is at least partially covered in the mark-up of products, meaning ultimately the customer pays a little more per item to outweigh the cost of theft. Back in 2010, it was estimated that shoplifting cost each US shopper $423 per year. Almost 10 years later that price is likely to be significantly higher.

It stands to reason then that security measures like EAS help keep the costs of those products down due to reducing product theft by up to 80 per cent.

Customer service

When your staff are busy protecting a store against loss and keeping a watchful eye out for shoplifters, they are being taken from the key role that offers real-world retail a distinct advantage over online stores – face-to-face customer service.

EAS allows store associates to continue catering to the customer without the distraction of remaining hyper-vigilant against shoplifting. While staff engage with the consumer, they can rest assured the EAS system will be monitoring items and alerting them to potential thefts.

Out of stocks

One major area where shoplifting affects most stores is in out-of-stock events. The retailer simply isn’t aware an item isn’t available until a customer cannot find it.

Searching for an item that has been stolen but is still recorded in the store inventory as being in stock wastes both the time and effort of the customer and that of the retailer.

Importantly, it affects the customer’s perception of their experience with a brand, and is one of the key reasons they may choose not to return to that outlet in the future.

Store appeal

A store that is streamlined, well-protected and welcoming is simply more appealing to consumers. As EAS offers a discrete yet highly effective product-based security measure, it contributes to this appeal.

Security tags are compact, highly effective and can be applied in a uniform fashion so they are inobtrusive and do not interfere with the customer’s experience of a product.

Meanwhile for high-volume, low value goods, labels offer security that can be easily incorporated into the packaging of a product and are then quickly deactivated at the point of sale.

Brand reputation

If a store is frequently targeted by shoplifters, the brand image is soon also affected. The outlet becomes known as a place that may pose safety issues for the customer, or where there are likely to be problems finding products.

In this case, EAS is just one of a number of measures a retailer can employ to improve their security. Best of all, it’s subtle, proven and protects items individually in a way few other loss prevention strategies can.

You can learn more about upgrading your security tags and labels to prevent shoplifting here.

A faster, more efficient era of mobile internet has arrived and with it comes fresh opportunities for physical retail.

Currently rolling out across the US, 5G is set to offer increased speed, less latency and greater bandwidth that will impact everything from the back end of retail operations to the customer experience instore.

Here’s what 5G means to retail…

What is 5G?

5G is the fifth generation of cellular mobile telecommunications, so it’s the type of internet you utilise when using a smart phone. It supersedes 4G, 3G and 2G, offering more data, a faster transfer rate, greater efficiency and less latency.

The upshot is, your mobile internet will be faster and more efficient, and there’ll be more bandwidth available for things like video streaming on-the-go.

Now 5G is steadily rolling out across the US and retailers are investigating the best ways to utilise the new technology.

The in-store experience

5G is predicted to be a major driver of the Internet of Things, allowing more devices to connect to mobile internet with greater efficiency.

As AT&T notes that’s going to better cater to emerging trends in retail that shape a shopper’s experience when they enter a store.

That includes a range of new technologies, like:

• personalized digital signage

• magic mirrors

• augmented reality

• virtual reality

• smart shelves

• video and pattern recognition of shoppers

Stores Magazine recently explained many retailers had sought to introduce this technology, but the heavy toll on bandwidth proved a challenge.

“While the hardware for digital fitting rooms, immersive experiences and interactive displays has long been available, retailers have often struggled with adoption due to the heavy bandwidth required to support these experiences,” they note. “5G could potentially eliminate these limitations.”

Mobile apps

Although mobile apps are nothing new, the speed at which they will be delivered and the seamless experience they will offer is set to transform under the guidance of 5G.

As retailers replace fixed internet with more efficient mobile, consumers will no longer have to overcome the glitch of connecting to a store’s network in order to access the benefits, Stores Magazine further explained.

“Having to log into store networks to access in-store functionality has often been a hiccup in the omnichannel experience,” the magazine notes.

“In a fully optimized 5G environment, customers could seamlessly walk in and out of any store with a high-speed, real-time connection that enables them to engage with the retailer throughout the process.”

Store operations

From the mobile Point of Sale to RFID tagging, store inventory and logistics, much of the back-end of modern retail depends upon the Cloud.

5G is set to speed up access to the Cloud, reduce the latency involved, and allow more devices to use and access it effectively at the same time.

This means the Cloud will be accessible in real and immediate time, improving everything from the performance of back-end operations to the reliability and immediacy of mobile Point of Sale.

Data and analytics

To create a personalised, customised experience, retailers are increasingly relying on the gathering of data and analytics.

In the recent retail technology study Wake Up Call for Digital Transformation Intel’s Alex Gefrides noted: “In-store analytics are being applied to every phase of the retail process by determining retail trends, predicting where the demand will be for products, optimizing pricing for a competitive edge, identifying consumer purchasing patterns and behaviors, and other insights for immediate decisions”.

5G will better furnish retailers with the ability to do this in real time.

So much to come

As Stores Magazine notes, the ways in which 5G will transform both retail and the wider world is in many ways yet to be fully explored.

“The faster speeds, performance and bandwidth will transform every industry,” they note. “No one can tell you what the world will look like in 10 years, but because of 5G, it will look very different. The same as it’s very different today than it was 10 years ago.”

RetailMeNot’s findings illustrate just how important physical retail continues to be in everyday American’s lives. In addition to 85 per cent of all shoppers visiting up to three non-grocery outlets each week, that number increases in younger generations.

The survey found millennials stop in at four physical locations a week while Gen Z visits on average 5.25.

While that’s great news for real-world retail, what is changing is the role that technology plays in that shopping journey.