Douglas has introduced theft prevention solutions in more than 300 of its German stores to minimise shrinkage and improve operational efficiency. The beauty specialist relies on tags from Sensormatic Solutions and their tamper-proof detection gates at the entrance and exit areas for electronic article surveillance in its stores. Douglas had previously tested the system from the Johnson Controls subsidiary in a pilot project.
Sensormatic’s Shrink Management-as-a-Service (SMaaS) is also in use at selected locations of the beauty retailer. This uses geo-mapping to uncover organised retail crime, reveal patterns of shrinkage and help identify theft hotspots. SMaaS provides the retailer with insights to recognise stores that are performing well and those that are underperforming. This gives Douglas the opportunity to uncover potential skill gaps in its staff and provide targeted retraining to further reduce shrinkage at individual locations.
Douglas works with labels from Sensormatic based on acousto-magnetic and high-frequency systems. These offer theft protection for a wide range of product categories. Security labels are often already attached to goods by logistics service providers in cross-docking centres so that they can be sold more quickly after delivery to the store.
Rising shrinkage is a major challenge
To ensure a smooth shopper experience, the article surveillance tags are reliably deactivated at check-out to minimise the number of false alarms at the exit. Sensormatics detection systems also detect metal foils and jammers to combat the loss of goods through organised retail crime.
“At Douglas, our top priority is to provide our customers with a safe shopping experience,” says Julia Grzybowska, Head of Store Compliance & Loss Prevention DACH at Douglas, adding: “With shrinkage and organised retail crime on the rise, it was more important than ever for us to strengthen our German stores with the latest EAS solutions to protect merchandise and our customers from potential thieves.”
