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Fitting room tool offers LP, service benefits
From November
2007
By D. Gail Fleenor
Fitting rooms are the perfect place to try
on the latest fashion . . . or to steal it. But
a new technology designed to assist customers
can also deter and detect theft through the use
of an RFID-enabled mirror.
Developed by U.K. merchandising solutions
provider thebigspace and jointly marketed with
Pasadena, Calif.-based Avery Dennison,
Magicmirror offers a two-for-one merchandising
and loss prevention solution for retailers.
Retailers lost $41.6 billion – or 1.61 percent
of sales – to shrinkage through employee theft,
shoplifting, vendor fraud and administrative
error in 2006, according to the National Retail
Security Survey. Shrink tends to hit the apparel
industry particularly hard, so Magicmirror’s
capabilities may be especially attractive to
those retailers.
thebigspace provides the software and technology
applications to digitally display information on
a mirror surface; Avery Dennison provides the
custom-designed RFID labels and tags that are
affixed to apparel and accessories. “When a
customer places or wears an RFID-tagged item in
front of Magicmirror, the mirror presents
information such as color, size, total dollar
amount and item count identified by the tag,”
says Philip Calderbank, director of global
marketing, RFID and security, for Avery
Dennison’s information and brand management
division.
Infosys Technologies, headquartered in
Bangalore, India, is a primary partner in
Magicmirror as the result of its proprietary
technology platform, PIXIE – the underlying
system that the mirror uses to read and analyze
RFID tags so that the correct product
information is displayed on the mirror.
Through the looking glass
The concept of identifying product begins with a
reader in the mirror that picks up information
from a chip in the garment tag, Calderbank says.
“For example, a retailer may offer a ladies’
dress that might also be worn as a top with
jeans. This information would be reflected on
the Magicmirror, along with photos of matching
accessories. The system is very visual and can
even show a model wearing the various items.”
This cross-merchandising appears to be working:
some retailers using the system report sales
increases of up to 25 percent, Calderbank says.
“Many customers see Magicmirror as making the
whole shopping experience more interesting,” he
says.
Consumers also gain additional customer service
with Magicmirror. For instance, if a customer
tries on an item that does not fit and needs
another size, she can use the mirror to call an
associate to bring additional sizes rather than
walk back out into the store.
The loss prevention aspect of Magicmirror is
equally intriguing for retailers. The system
does not invade customer privacy, using a system
that senses RFID tags in order to display
information for customers. “It is a two-way
mirror with technology rather than people behind
the glass,” Calderbank says. “There are no spies
in the fitting rooms.”
In addition to cross-merchandising, the
technology can count items brought into the
fitting room, itself a subtle form of theft
deterrence. “At the side of the mirror, all
items the customer has brought into the room can
be listed,” Calderbank says. “The customer can
see that the system recognizes what’s been
brought in.”
The Magicmirror system can send an alarm to
store associates when items exceed the total
allowed in fitting rooms. Alerts may also be
sent if items exceed a set dollar amount or if
there are multiples of the same item and size.
With the alarm, associates can check that all
items taken in are accounted for when leaving
the fitting room.
Calderbank firmly believes that the increased
sales generated through the mirror’s
cross-merchandising suggestions help justify the
cost of the system, above and beyond its
deterrence and detection capabilities.
Loss prevention bundle
“Technology is being added all the time to
combat theft,” Calderbank says. Magicmirror
“puts these technologies together in one
bundle.”
Avery Dennison and thebigspace are talking to
major apparel retailers about using Magicmirror.
A new standard protocol for chips allows for a
stronger merchandising performance with a
smaller chip. The best news for retailers: the
cost of RFID chips has decreased by half,
according to Calderbank, making the dual-purpose
technology even more affordable.
“We’re at an interesting point in time,” says
Marshall Kay, principal of RFID Sherpas, a
Chicago retail consultancy. “I believe the loss
prevention community is beginning to appreciate
that RFID’s benefits are not tied to whether the
retailer is using a tag with both RFID and EAS.
“Integration with EAS isn’t always necessary,”
he says. |
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