Noccela brought IoT to stores and is now making shoplifters unemployed and organized retail crime an unprofitable business.
Electronic Article Surveillance of today is very outdated. The market is dominated by a couple of big players and as one of Noccela customers puts it, “innovative companies listen to their clients, whereas traditional companies do things their own way, not knowing what the customers actually need”. Noccela’s director of customer relationships Riku Miettinen confirms: “Our customers are the corner stone of our product development and everything we do originates from the customers’ needs. Listening to our customers is, and will always be, one of our key success factors.”
Noccela lets sales associates and/or security guards know real-time, when and where a shoplifting attempt is taking place. “We want to make sure that the sales associates can focus on selling instead of detecting potential shoplifters”, continues Miettinen. “Noccela can notify the staff when a product has been picked up from shelf or tried on, and make sure there will be a sales person on the spot to sell it.”
Not only does Noccela track where items move within the store with <50cm accuracy, it also recognizes the various techniques shoplifters use, for example cutting the wires, hiding products in foil-lined bags or using magnets to remove electronic article tags. As Noccela knows which product it is protecting, it is also possible to see how the products move within the store. This provides retailers with information on matters such as negative purchase decisions (consumers ditching products before they get to the checkout) or how many times a specific piece of clothing has been taken to the fitting room.
The Noccela smart tags are being trialled at Gigantti (a major Nordic consumer electronics chain) and one global fashion retailer. The pilot has been ongoing since the summer and none of the articles protected by Noccela have been stolen.
Some recent headlines:
International Business Times
Shoplifters beware: These smart tags can now track a thief’s every move in real time
RTinsights
New Smart Tags Use the IoT to Nab Shoplifters
Tech.eu
Finnish Noccela raises €1.2 million to expand sales of its shoplifter detection system
