Freedom Case featured in Retail Risk News
Could we actually come to love locked cases?
They’re a necessity for loss prevention, but often loathed by customers and store operatives alike, however the much-maligned locked case could be in for an image overhaul thanks to some new tech on the market. Could they even become popular? Our CEO Noel Verbruggen thinks it might well be possible – read what he has to say in his recent article for leading industry title Retail Risk
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Is a solution in sight for the locked case conundrum?
A necessity for loss prevention, but often loathed by customers and store operatives alike, is new tech the solution retailers are looking for to help with lost sales from locked cases? Industry veteran Noel Verbruggen of Intrepid Security thinks it might well be….
When you’ve been in the industry as long as I have, you become used to loss prevention’s perennial problems. Issues that have faced us all for years take on an almost accepted status – unsolvable and annoying but just things we have to live with. We shrug our shoulders and roll our eyes, suck them up and move on.
Now that I’ve been deemed an ‘industry veteran’ (although I don’t know who decided I am and I’m just an old codger to my less-kind colleagues) I’m as guilty as the next man for falling into this mind-set from time to time. That said, it’s always good to see innovation in our industry that puts me in my place and disproves what I’d come to believe are immutable facts.
A case in point
Locked cases are a prime example of the industry having accepted, for a long time, that some necessities bring with them unfortunate consequences. Of course, we know why we need them – protecting our high-end stock. They’ve been the best worst option when it comes to having premium goods on the shop floor, allowing customers to get a good look at merchandise that often represents a healthy profit for the store owners.
The problem though, as almost anyone who’s had one will know, is that they are generally, massively unpopular with customers and more often than not with the retailer too. On the whole people nowadays prefer a shopping experience that is as hassle free as possible. Avoiding human interaction is almost an obsession for younger shoppers in particular! Customers might like what they see in locked cabinets, but do they like it enough to find a member of staff to unlock it for them? Do they want that same staff member lingering about - often slightly uncomfortably given they have a hundred and one other things to be getting on with - whilst they browse?
A lot of the time it’s a no. Locked cabinets represent an interruption in the customer’s retail experience and often mean lost sales – sometimes as much as 20%. Alongside this, for store owners, tasking store associates with opening locked cases represents unproductive labour and an extra level of faff all-round. And as for lost keys………
However, as is so often the way of the world nowadays, it looks like technology has come to the rescue.
Self-service locked cabinets
At first glance, the idea of locked cabinets that can be opened by customers sounds self-defeating. But where tech and retail meet there are seemingly no issues that can’t be solved.
US loss prevention and customer engagement firm Indyme has shaken the locked cabinets world up a lot recently by launching its Freedom Case – a case that can be opened by customers using text codes sent to their phones, the store’s loyalty card or just their face. I’ve been in the industry for 30 years and there are few times I’ve been so impressed by something that is, genuinely, revolutionary.
Customer Consent and a shopping win-win
By using these technologies to open the cabinets, the retailer automatically has a record of who is looking in the cabinet. A sign letting customers know that by opening the cabinet they are consenting to being tracked allows an extra level of surveillance for the retailer. Happy shoppers, enhanced customer data and potentially improved sales is a good result for everyone.
In 2023, customers are well used to using their mobile phones for just about everything and have no qualms about loyalty cards holding their personal data and tracking their shopping habits. Look at the popularity of the likes of Tesco’s Clubcard, the Boots Advantage Card or Nectar for example. It’s these pioneering developments that have set the ground for acceptance of the tech we’re now seeing come to market.
Indyme’s innovation is a great example of how we’re seeing the future of retail developing. In an age of Amazon supermarkets and automated ordering (I never thought I’d get on with those screens in McDonalds but was wrong yet again) it’s clear that technology is turning the whole industry on its head. It’s fast moving and genuinely exciting.
Although the changes we’re seeing are being driven by mobile phone enabled shoppers, the benefits translate directly to retailers bottom lines. Faced with a double whammy of rising costs and increasing rates of theft, solutions that save money whilst providing enhanced security are always going to be winners.
It’s also worth noting that, in the drive to increase store footfall and make our High Streets loved again, the tech is helping too. For higher-end purchases in particular, people still like to get a sense of the look and feel of some items and in-person shopping offers a more intimate shopping experience than on-line can offer. In-person also gives the retailer up-selling and impulse buying opportunities.
Only a few years ago it would have been all but impossible to predict how different the 21st Century shopping would become. Technological developments are moving at pace, opening up amazing new opportunities and solutions to retailers and customers. The only worry for ‘industry veterans’ like me is, what is there left to teach the youngsters coming up through the ranks? Less and less I suspect, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing?
“Indyme’s innovation is a great example of how we’re seeing the future of retail developing.”