Lose less and earn more

Sokos is a leading retail chain in Finland. In addition to department stores, they have multiple Emotion specialty stores across the country. Stores have an extensive selection of expensive branded merchandise including clothing and perfumes, and the challenge of a high and increasing number of shoplifting that typically come along with them. The solution to reducing thefts was found with Noccela UWB RTLS.

CUSTOMER CHALLENGE AND GOAL: Reduce shrinkage caused by shoplifting

Sokos retail chain has a total of 19 large department stores with extensive selections in the centers of the largest cities and towns across Finland. In addition to department stores, the chain has Emotion specialty stores in shopping centers and in connection with Prisma hypermarkets.
The challenge retailers face nowadays is the high and increasing number of theft incidents. Thefts are often possible by wrapping security tags with foil paper, breaking the tags, and removal of tags with own magnetic tools. Employees are not capable to prevent shoplifting because of blind spots and lack of visibility of the full store.
Sokos had been using traditional EAS systems to secure their products against shoplifting. While the traditional systems have their benefits and weaknesses, it was attractive that Noccela EAS system could bring new IoT features, including the elimination of additional guarding resources that are expensive.

Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) and Up-sales automation in retail

Noccela’s indoor positioning algorithm High-Performance Ranging (HPR) is the unique UWB radio technology. It has adapted the best performance features from the existing algorithms in the market: Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) and Two Way Ranging (TWR). HPR is using patented technology to provide the ability to use UWB tags with almost limitless capacity. HPR is also known and appreciated for its capability to provide the largest coverage for beacons, meaning fewer beacons, fewer cables, and fewer devices to install.
The solution works with cloud supported engine whereas the tags are communicating with the beacons which send the information to the cloud. The positioning calculation takes place and is restored in the cloud for analysis, and reports via third-party API.
Alert handling in the mobile application the staff use is effortless as Noccela facilitated different sounds according to the type of notification. Messages are understood and can be reacted to immediately without having to look at the smart device.

The solution gained its place as a theft prevention and a sales tool for daily operations

Noccela EAS solution was implemented in Sokos Porvoo site in March 2017 and in Pori in February 2019. The beacon installation and the initial tagging of the merchandise were completed in two days. The setup did not require any additional sensors at exits like passive systems do. Also, the orientation to the system was easy, as the setup is similar to traditional EAS systems.

  • The merchandise is protected by tagging them with Noccela’s patented merchandise tracking tags. The protected merchandise also gained full visibility due to the real-time tracking capability of the tags. The web portal is used for monitoring the location and the behavior of the protected merchandise, whenever necessary.
  • Geo-fencing was implemented to generate alerts when the tagged merchandise is headed toward the exits, giving the security guards and the staff heads-up notifications. The fitting rooms and the areas of high-end and expensive merchandise were defined as areas to generate ‘sales-boost’ alerts to the staff, to notify the opportunities to up-sell.
  • The tags are equipped with dedicated sensors for detecting even the smallest movement. When a customer picks a merchandise the alert is generated by the tag itself locally. The corresponding incident with its location information is then sent as a notification to the staff mobile phones in real-time. This whole process only takes a fraction of a second.
  • Noccela mobile app notifies of the presumed theft attempts by ‘illegal magnet use’, ‘wire cutting’, ‘tag breaking’, ‘foil wrapping’, ‘headed towards an exit skipping the cashier’, and ‘sales-boost’ opportunities.

The theft attempts have since been prevented almost completely. The system has not interrupted or added a load to daily work. Instead, it has improved the sales operations with the sales boost feature.

Noccela smart EAS solution helps us protect our expensive products from theft reliably, effectively and timely. We now have eyes at every corner without literally having to use excessive guards. With surveillance been taken care of, our staff is focusing more on the up-sale operations and Noccela Sales Boost feature is making immense contribution to it, and the resulting earnings.

Skinnarla Erja, Sokos department store Director

PARTIES INVOLVED

Sokos is a chain of department stores in Finland. It is part of the S-Group which also operates the hotel chain Sokos Hotels. Out of all department and specialty store chains that are part of the S-Group Sokos has generated the highest revenues. The revenue of the department store chain Sokos increased slightly from 2015 to 2016, amounting to 225 million euros in the year 2016. Noccela’s partnership with Sokos continues to grow with a frame agreement with department stores all over the country.

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