The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the retail landscape, encouraging many retailers to adopt cutting-edge Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) systems.
These technologies enhance anti-theft measures by ensuring that tools are effective, cost-efficient, and easy to use. Collaborating with a knowledgeable retail security partner is crucial in selecting the right EAS products and services tailored to specific retail environments.
Variety of EAS Tags
EAS hard tags are designed for a wide range of items, from clothing and shoes to handbags and sunglasses. Some are specifically developed for high-value goods like electronics or to prevent benefit denial through ink tags that damage items if improperly removed.
These advanced tags for boxed goods allow for seamless stocking without diminishing packaging appeal. They feature adhesive-backed holders, making it easy to attach, activate, and detect unauthorized tampering or removal through EAS pedestals.
Remote System Management
Shoppers returning to physical stores appreciate environments that blend safety with comfort
Retailers increasingly use Wi-Fi remote tuning as a cost-effective solution to reduce in-person service visits. This innovation allows technicians to log into EAS systems remotely, diagnosing and often reconfiguring them to ensure peak performance. Self-alarming tags with infrared (IR) technology also offer protection for small or delicate items like health and beauty goods, sunglasses, and sporting gear.
Discrete Security for Luxury Retail
Shoppers returning to physical stores appreciate environments that blend safety with comfort. For luxury retailers, integrating concealed EAS systems at entry points maintains aesthetics without compromising security. These sophisticated systems use smaller and less intrusive tags, which appeal to high-end fashion retailers by reducing nuisance alarms while maintaining robust theft prevention.
Cost and Longevity of EAS Systems
EAS systems are known for their efficiency and simplicity in preventing item theft
EAS systems are known for their efficiency and simplicity in preventing item theft, with retailers noting a significant reduction in theft rates after installation.
Typically lasting between 10-15 years, and sometimes longer with minimal maintenance, these systems require a cost-benefit analysis that weighs stock loss against system expenditures.
Long-Term Security Investment
For many retailers, investing in the upkeep of an EAS system proves more economical than absorbing losses from theft, which can impact sales and customer loyalty.
Effective EAS systems help ensure that customer experiences are not disrupted by empty shelves due to stolen merchandise. Everon provides tailored security solutions with their experienced professionals offering national resources and localized support, ensuring retail spaces are safeguarded against theft threats.
The COVID-19 pandemic jumpstarted some shifts in the industry landscape, prompting many retailers to adopt innovative technologies like smarter Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) systems and elevated services to ensure every tool in their anti-theft arsenal is effective, affordable and trouble-free.
Working with an experienced retail security partner is the first step in identifying the right EAS products and services for your retail space.
Benefit denial devices
EAS hard tags come in a variety of shapes, sizes and purposes from those developed specifically for clothing, shoes, handbags and sunglasses to others that fit atop liquor bottles and benefit denial devices, like ink tags, that will damage or destroy an item if forcibly removed. Some of the newest EAS tags target specific high-value and high-theft merchandise, like electronics.
Advanced EAS security tags for boxed goods allow retailers to stack multiple boxes on the shelf without obscuring the packaging’s marketing value. An adhesive backed holder is attached to the item, arming the EAS box with the flip of a switch after it to slides into the carrier. Once applied and armed, the tag is able to detect illicit tampering or removal and will self-alarm if illegally detached or if it passes through the store’s EAS detection pedestals before removal.
Cost-effective way
Self-alarming tags using infrared (IR) technology can provide theft protection for small or difficult-to-tag items, like health and beauty products, sunglasses and delicate clothing, fragrances and sporting goods.
To be an effective deterrent against shoplifting, an EAS system has to work properly. If an issue with the system arises, seamless correction is a must.
More retailers are relying on Wi-Fi remote tuning for EAS systems as an innovative and cost-effective way to reduce on-site service visits. When usersplace a service call, the technician can remotely log in to the system to diagnose and, in most cases, remotely reconfigure your system so it performs at its peak.
Concealed antenna systems
Consumers returning to brick-and-mortar locations say they are looking for retail experiences that provide them with a sense of safety, comfort and security that does not feel intrusive. For luxury brands, aesthetics and lifestyle continue to be highly valued among shoppers who want to indulge in experiences that instill feelings of joy, happiness, familiarity and openness.
Several higher-end retailers are implementing concealed EAS systems to be less prominent at store entrances without sacrificing security. Luxurious, wide entrances enhance a retailer’s exterior display area and are more welcoming to customers while also offering robust anti-theft technology and reduced nuisance alarms. The more advanced concealed EAS systems are made to work with smaller, unobtrusive EAS tags often preferred by high fashion retailers.
Cost versus savings
EAS systems have earned a solid reputation for simplicity and effectiveness to protect against theft of individual items. After installing a system, retailers report a 60-to-80 percent reduction in theft. If properly maintained, systems typically last 10-15 years with minimal downtime, and some systems can last more than 15 years.
Any cost benefit comparison must take into account the cost of stock losses due to theft weighed against the initial and ongoing expenditures of a system.
Maintaining an EAS system
For many store owners, the investment in operating and maintaining an EAS system is far less expensive than the ongoing cost of theft that can have wide-ranging impacts on the business. Not only does theft account for lost sales, but can also erode customer loyalty when legitimate customers go elsewhere for better product selection because stolen products are no longer on store shelves. As a result, EAS systems guarantee that companies’ products will be effectively protected against any threats of theft that may pose a risk to their retail spaces.
With the national resources and local offices, Everon's certified professionals understand their day-to-day concerns and can design a security solution that meets the unique requirements of each location and operation.
