As one of the world's leading suppliers of merchandise availability solutions for the retail industry, Checkpoint Systems will showcase its latest solutions at the EuroShop exhibition, Hall 06 / Stand A35. This year, the company will be presenting innovative solutions for retailers to ensure inventory accuracy, reduced shrinkage and improved merchandise availability for a better consumer shopping experience.

"Today, retailers are looking for intelligent solutions that help them to both increase merchandise availability in their stores and boost their sales thanks to an improved consumer shopping experience. If an item is not available when the consumer is ready to buy it, he will probably just buy it in another store”, comments Per Levin, President & Chief Sales Officer Merchandise Availability Solutions. “EuroShop is the most important event in the retail calendar. As a key strategic partner to the industry, we are showcasing our market-leading innovations and proven technologies that are being implemented by the world's leading retailers.”

The future of retail

At the heart of Checkpoint’s stand is the iMAP Store – a model for an intelligent retail store of the future (iMAP = Intelligent Merchandise Availability Program). Equipped with the latest RF and RFID applications, the iMAP Store shows retailers how to increase merchandise availability by reducing shoplifting and optimising inventory management. Checkpoint will also demonstrate intelligent RF and RFID antennas, POS checkout and deactivation solutions, inventory receiving area and its portfolio of RF and RFID labels. The iMAP Store offers solutions for apparel, electronics, health & beauty and food retailers.

Highlights at EuroShop:

Merchandise Visibility Solutions

At EuroShop 2014, Checkpoint Systems will present its new RFID-based EAS overhead antenna, the Overhead 2.0. This compact antenna is part of an integrated solution, delivering real-time inventory and demand-driven replenishment. It serves as an EAS system that alarms and identifies stolen merchandise – improving operations at the point-of-exit – while enhancing the customer shopping experience by helping to ensure merchandise is available. This solution offers high read accuracy through Wirama Radar™, a unique combination of patented hardware and software that ensures unprecedented data integrity; retailers can confidently place tagged items at the front of the store without being concerned about stray reads causing false alarms. The Overhead 2.0 covers much higher ceilings and wider store entrances than the original overhead solution, making it an even better fit for shopping centre-based specialty retailers and department stores.

The OAT Foundation Suite is at the heart of Checkpoint's Merchandise Availability implementations, with roots in the MIT Auto-ID center. This comprehensive and scalable software addresses retailers' source to store inventory management and loss prevention needs. With its flexible architecture, the software can be deployed in a variety of ways, including: 1) centrally in a data center, 2) on a computer appliance at any location/site, 3) cloud-based, or 4) any combination of these, without constraining the retailer to any particular architecture. Leading global apparel retailers are using Checkpoint's Merchandise Visibility solutions with each of these different architectures. Some retailers have chosen the cloud-based approach, which requires no IT infrastructure or setup, such as a leading European apparel and leisure retailer that is monitoring all of its in-store RFID devices with each device's status shown on the cloud in real-time. Another European apparel retailer is tracking its store performance analytics in real-time via the cloud. A large department store chain chose to use a central data center to host hundreds of stores.

Highlighting how consumers would profit from RFID technology, Checkpoint will present its brand new RFID Footwear Display Compliance Solution. In order to ensure availability of the display shoe sample, retailers typically use time-intensive barcode-based scans that require store employees to physically touch each item. Checkpoint’s Footwear RFID Display Compliance Solution – comprised of a Handheld RFID device, RFID pre-encoded labels and RFID software – enable the footwear retailer to fully control the sample items on display. The solution can increase sales by an average of 2-5% and up to 10% for some retailers, increase planogram compliance by 99%+ with more frequent counts, reduce time sample from days to hours, enabling store employees to immediately see if a sample is missing from the display thanks to more frequent counts. The solution also reduces labour costs by as much as 75% by eliminating manual display sample counts.

Loss Prevention Solutions

For the first time in Europe, Checkpoint will showcase the next generation of its EVOLVE antenna range, the EVOLVE iRange, aimed at improving merchandise availability. This portfolio of six solutions utilises the latest technology to enable retail environments to protect their aisles, entrance and exit doors against theft.

Fitted with superior electronics, the stylish EVOLVE iRange offers retailers best-in-class features including enhanced performance in a complex environment, both in terms of detection and reduction of false alarms, organised retail crime protection via jammer detection, remote maintenance and advanced reporting options. Smart accessories, such as integrated visitor counting units, can be used by store chains wishing to maximise revenue. The coloured base cover options and advertising panels will fit store designs and colour schemes while displaying special promotions or just enhancing the image of the retail brand.

Other innovative antenna solutions on show will include an underfloor antenna (EVOLVE Exclusive F10) covering entrance doorways with preferences for an open entrance without visible antennas. In addition, the company will also showcase its EVOLVE Exclusive E10 range, that has been specifically designed to provide retailers with a straightforward transition to RFID from existing RF technologies.

To protect retailers against organized retail crime, Checkpoint will present its digital, software-based solution MetalPoint ™ HyperGuard ™. This new digital, software-driven solution is able to detect the most common tools – such as foil bag or magnets – used by organised retail crime (ORC) groups to shoplift in store. With Metal Point, retailers can determine if a potential shoplifter has entered the store and by which entrance/exit.

EuroShop visitors can also view the Alpha range of high theft solutions being launched this year, including the S3verify, which enables retailers to ensure that the detaching device they have bought for their store is unique and the only type that can be used by employees. Trying to open it with a traditional magnet or stolen key will cause the anti-theft device to alarm and indicate to store employees that a defeat attempt is in progress. The Alpha Atlas, a brand new sleek, low-profile stand-alone solution that secures high-theft electronics and increases sales by allowing shoppers to fully experience the merchandise will also be on show on stand A35 in hall 6.