Agon Systems, the Swiss creators of the Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) device ‘The Concept Tag’ – report that a trial of the device with River Island saw the high street retailer’s losses through theft reduce by 60 per cent in the flgaship Marble Arch Park House store on Oxford Street in london’s West End.
Besides a reduction in theft of tagged items, the store also found a further reduction of 27 per cent in theft of other products that were not using the Concept Tag. As Agon say, the tag deters would-be thieves from coming into a store entirely once they realise it’s in use there. River Island installed the Concept Tag – named ‘Best Newcomer’ at the 2016 Retail Fraud Awards – in four stores in April 2016. This included its three stores on London’s Oxford Street, and a fourth store in Rotterdam’s busy Lijnbaan shopping district. Some 60,000 Concept Tags were sent to each of the four stores.
The initial results have been so promising that Concept Tags have since been sent to a further ten stores, with another two to follow this year in the Netherlands and Sweden.
Helen Tierney, Senior Profit Protection Manager at River Island, said: “When we agreed to trial the Concept Tag I knew it would help reduce our retail losses from theft. However, I didn’t expect it to be as effective as it’s been so far – or so quickly. The fact that shoplifters are moving to other stores as they know they’ll have no luck removing the Concept Tag is fantastic, and it’s especially welcome when it’s a River Island store in such a high-profile location as Oxford Street!”
Sean Welch, Managing Director of Agon Systems, said: “We’re delighted that River Island has decided to expand their use of the Concept Tag to more locations on the back of a highly successful initial implementation. Once again it shows how fantastic the device is as a retail loss prevention tactic, and to have it done in such a high-profile arena is all the more impressive.”
Agon Systems says that a locking mechanism within their tag makes it practically impossible to remove the tag by force. Tests have shown it would need over 50 kilograms of pressure applied to force the tag off of a garment – meaning it would likely cause damage to the garment or shoplifter if attempted.
An initial trial with another retailer, JD Sports in 2014 saw the Concept Tag installed at their Oxford Street store and 12 regional flagship stores, and in the majority of cases these stores saw reductions of between 50pc and 65pc. Visit www.concepttag.com.
