Anti-theft label: Narrow design protects easy-to-steal cosmetics

09 Jul 2018 --- A new narrow anti-theft label is providing a solution to the issue of protecting beauty and cosmetic products with size or shape constraints. The Sensormatic Health, Beauty & Cosmetic (HBC) Label from Tyco Retail Solutions is designed to secure some of the most stolen cosmetics and personal care items that are usually small and easy to conceal. The HBC label recognizes the retail trend to move beauty items from behind the counter to make them more easily accessible to consumers.

The HBC label provides consistent deactivation at the point-of-sale and reliable detection performance. Available for in-store hand application, this label can also be applied to merchandise at the point of manufacturing. This allows retailers to receive floor-ready merchandise with consistent label placement to help expedite receiving and selling floor fulfillment.

“Today, consumers want to try before they buy and easily access items when they want them. So that’s why offering samples and moving products out on shelves and closer to shoppers versus behind counters is the new way of selling beauty,” says Catherine Walsh, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Tyco Retail Solutions.

“To support this change in retailing, the Sensormatic HBC label is an ideal solution to help retailers protect what is currently unprotected — thin and narrow profile products — while consumers take the experience into their own hands to play, try, and learn before they buy,” Walsh explains.

As makeup counters are fading away due to today’s evolving shopper behavior, retailers and brands must find anti-theft solutions to fit the new self-service model for beauty. The HBC label provides retailers with reliable merchandise protection using proven Acousto-Magnetic (AM) EAS Sensormatic technology. Its narrow design protects cylindrically-shaped merchandise too slender for traditional EAS labels such as cosmetics, skin care and oral health products.

Tyco Retail Solutions, part of Johnson Controls, is a leading provider of analytics-based Loss Prevention, Inventory Intelligence and Traffic Insights. Tyco’s solutions provide real-time visibility and predictive analytics to help retailers maximize business outcomes and enhance the customer experience in a digitally-driven shopping world.

The expert view
“It has always been difficult for brand owners and retailers to protect against small item theft of high value articles such as cosmetics and associated beauty preparations as the products themselves are small and retailers wish to encourage inspection and trial before customers purchase as this drives sales,” Jeremy Plimmer, expert author on product and image security, tells PackagingInsights.

“Putting such items in anti-theft displays is not really an option and the premium prices often charged for such products on open display encourages petty theft as well as organised shoplifting where gangs 'mass-lift' products for later distribution at street markets and car boot sales,” he says.

“The introduction of such an anti-theft EAS label in this sector will be seen as a positive move by retailers as they wish to protect valuable margin from retail theft of this kind,” Plimmer adds. “It has always been difficult for EAS suppliers to meet the needs of retailers in this sector as the EAS tag profile needed for such items is so small it is difficult to detect a signal when thieves pass through the security system at a store exit.”

“Sensormatic has obviously developed a satisfactory solution to a problem that has vexed retailers for years,” he concludes.

By Joshua Poole