Thoughts on tags...
Retail Loss Prevention (RLP) systems, also known as Electronic
Article Surveillance (EAS) systems, consist of antennas (pedestals)
containing electronics for transmitting and receiving radio
signals. These systems are designed to detect hard tags and paper
labels that are attached to items in a store.
Hard tags and paper labels nowadays come in a huge variety of
shapes, dimensions and colors. In combination with the different
RLP technologies that are being used, this causes confusion for the
retailer and leaves room for mistakes.
Choice of technology
RLP systems are mainly manufactured in 2 technology
variants: Radio Frequency (RF) and Acousto Magnetic (AM). Tags and
labels that come with these technologies can not be mixed, i.e. AM
tags are not detected by RF systems and RF tags are not detected by
AM systems.
Cross Point develops and manufactures systems with both
technologies. Many retailers decide to purchase tags directly from
sources other than the supplier of the systems. This poses a big
threat to the level of security. RLP systems are blamed when a tag
or label is not detected, but it often turns out that the tags are
of poor quality or do not match with the system's
specifications.
Detection
Detection wise, the size of the housing of the tag itself
is of no importance, but the size of the coil inside the housing is
the major factor for proper detection of the RF tag. Basically: the
bigger, the better! The quality of the ferrite and magnetism used
in AM tags is also an important factor for a proper functioning AM
tag.
The maximum possible detection distance is mostly determined by
the size of the coil inside an RF tag. A larger tag coil will allow
a larger aisle width, where a smaller coil will limit the aisle
width drastically. Most retailers are not aware of this technical
fact and purchase small tags to go with their large aisle widths.
This results in poor detection of these small tags and often the
RLP system is blamed. AM tags however can usually be of a smaller
size than RF tags, which is a result of the difference in
technologies.
Quality
Proper detection of the tag is one important thing, the
other is the ease of use of attaching tags to items and detaching
them again. Tags should be easy to attach and detach for store
employees, but must remain firmly attached to the secured item
while on display in the store.
Cross Point tags are equipped with the Code Lock locking
mechanism, which prevents tags from being easily detached from
secured items with the use of standard detachers. Code Lock
technology, which now has become the industry standard, requires a
stronger magnetic field to release the security pin from the lock
and therefore guarantees a higher level of protection against
unauthorized detachments.
Cross Point tags are equipped with the Total Enclosure Design
(TED) principle, where the actual security pin is embedded in a
plastic shell. This shell covers the complete tag, making it
extremely difficult to detach the tag unauthorized.
Disposables
Disposables are very popular because of their compact
size. They are ideal to be used on smaller items and for example in
books. Generally, disposable labels need to be deactivated in the
store after purchase of the item it is attached to. Not only the
detection of these labels is important, it must also be possible to
properly deactivate them.
The most commonly used RF disposables are bar-coded paper labels
and they come in various sizes. Keep in mind that the size of the
selected paper label is again an important factor with reference to
the maximum allowed aisle width. A smaller label will limit the
aisle more than a larger label.
The DR label is the AM disposable and is, other than the RF
labels, only available in one size. Some larger sized AM hard tags
actually contain a DR label, where you might think that these tags
have a better performance, but they haven't.
Source tagging
Source tagging, embedding disposable labels at either the
point of manufacture or packaging, is already very popular in the
packaged products industry and is also becoming more common in the
fashion industry. An enclosed or sewed-in label removes the need
for store employees to attach security labels to the items, but
also carries some risks because of reactivation of labels.
Especially in fashion, where these sewed-in labels have to be
removed after the garment has been purchased by the customer, a
potential risk rises when this label will not be removed.
Although the label should have been deactivated properly in the
store at the time of purchase, the label can be reactivated as a
result of wearing or washing the garment. A reactivated label will
trigger RLP systems in stores that use the same technology and thus
will invoke unwanted alarms when entering or leaving stores. This
is one of the main reasons why Cross Point has developed a
user-friendly RLP system that can differentiate between incoming
and outgoing alarms.
Label deterioration
The quality of the AM DR labels tends to deteriorate
throughout the years because of weakening of the magnetized
components the label consists of. As a result, the maximum
detection distance of these labels might be less than the specified
maximum aisle width for this type of label. A deteriorated label
might also be more difficult to deactivate properly.
Conclusion
Since there is a huge variety of tags and labels available
on the market, one has to be extremely careful when making a
selection. In order to obtain maximum benefits from our Retail Loss
Prevention systems, the size, frequency and quality of tags and
labels must be carefully chosen. Proper guidance for retailers is
of great importance.