A clothing security tag is one crucial part of an EAS system. The tag is a small “signal transmitter” that you put on the merchandise that you want to protect. The tag will signal to the EAS antennas to make them alarm if they come to close. E.g. if someone is trying to steal the item and take them through the exit without paying/removing the tag. At Gateway we also call these tags consumables.
Why is it important to use EAS technology?
EAS technology is an old technology – meaning that it is reliable, well tested and high functioning. It is an easy way to protect your merchandise. The tags will sound an alarm if they come to close to the antennas. This will make it easy for your security staff to intervene when someone is trying to steal something. The antennas in themselves also look deterrent to potential shoplifters, they will if possible choose a different store to steal from instead.
Amateur shoplifters vs organized crimes:
In general terms the shoplifters can be divided into two groups – the amateurs and the professionals. The amateurs is the largest group and represent around 85 % of the shoplifters. They are easier to spot than the professionals and are usually caught by your EAS system as long as items are correctly marked up. They are in many cases not aware which labels are the actual alarms (they can look very much just like a barcode) or you can hide labels inside of packages to make them hard to remove before stealing.
The organized shoplifters, the professionals, are usually harder to spot. They may case a store well in advance of the actual theft. They know how the labels look and which tags that they can open, and they usually go after the most valuable items that is easy to resell. Sometimes the organized shoplifters bring prepared bags, with a metal foil on the inside of the fabric, this reduces the signal from the tags by so much that the shoplifters can take them through the antennas without an alarm. To avoid this you can integrate your antennas with metal detection, which will send a silent alarm (a light behind the cashier and notifications to your phone) already when someone enters your store, giving you the possibility to surveil this person when they are in the store and not giving them a chance to continue with the planned theft.
The difference between tags – is there one?
The biggest difference between tags are their lock mechanism, whether they unlock with the use of mechanic force or magnetic power. A mechanic lock can be unlocked with the help of force. A magnetic lock can be unlocked with the help of magnetic power, which means that the detacher must have a strong magnetic quality – this is why you always have to have the sign “do not put your credit cards here” on your checkout, because the magnet in the detacher will de-magnetize the credit cards.
