Projected to grow at a CAGR of around 3%, Electronic Article Surveillance System Market is to witness a significant growth over the forecast period owing to increasing retail shrinkage globally. Retail shrinkage has led to significant losses for many retailers. Increasing retail industry is expected to have a positive impact on the market growth.
Shoplifting techniques have also advanced in these years as thieves are finding ways to exploit the technology and steal the products smartly. This has encouraged many retailers to adopt highly sophisticated anti-theft techniques such as EAS systems to protect their products from shoplifting. EAS systems component consist of electronic antenna, deactivator or detacher and electronic tag. EAS tag is being used by retailers to prevent theft of products in retail stores or shoplifting of books from library. These tags are attached to products or books and are deactivated or removed when the item is sold out to consumers. This helps in enhancing the profit margin and operating efficiency of the retailers. EAS systems have EAS technology, which detects and sounds an alarm if the item with active tags passes through the gated area of the retail store. EAS systems reduce the cost of labor to be employed at stores for the purpose of preventing theft by customers.
EAS tags are ideal for delicate garments as they do no harm to the garment. It also helps retailers with brand enhancement of the product and simplifies management as retailers do not have to take measures to avoid the employees from stealing the goods. Customers feel at ease and comfortable at retail stores with EAS systems as employers do not stare at them while they shop. These systems threaten the thieves from stealing the goods. The theft rate of retail stores with EAS systems is 60%-70% lower than the non-EAS stores. Technological advancement in EAS system such as source tagging allows for smooth logistics flow as these tags are attached to the product at the point of manufacture and does not require manual labeling of merchandize, thereby saving time and money for the retailers. It also allows retailers to focus on sales rather than on preventing their goods from theft. However, recent discovery by doctors that EAS systems in stores can disrupt the pacemaker devices of the patients and can cause them to drop beats. This discovery is to hamper the EAS system growth over the forecast period. Moreover, high cost of implementing EAS systems pose a challenge to the Electronic Article Surveillance System Market.
The market can be segmented on the basis of end-users, EAS components and EAS system type. The EAS system type includes magnetic systems, acousto-magnetic systems, radio frequency systems and microwave systems. Magnetic systems are made up of strip of amorphous metal and detection is achieved with the help of transmitter and receiver. The EAS components consist of electronic antenna, deactivator or detacher and electronic tag. Antenna has electronic circuit board system which sounds alarm when electronic tags passes by it. EAS systems are being used in apparel and fashion accessories stores, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and supermarkets and large grocery stores. Employees having easy access to inventory store often steal retail goods. This segment reported for the highest retail shrinkage currently. Thereby, it is necessary to install EAS systems in these retail outlets. The cosmetics and pharmaceutical stores are more vulnerable to retail shrinkage as shoplifters focus on small and easily concealable items. These products include face creams and perfumes as well as pharmaceutical products such as fever, cold and cough and antibiotics medicine. Supermarkets and large grocery stores install EAS for managing their inventories and preventing thefts of all kind of products.
Europe, North America and APAC dominated the market recently on account of increasing cosmetic and pharmaceutical retail stores as well as supermarkets and large grocery store. According to annual Global Retail Theft Barometer, UK and Europe retailers lost a huge amount to shoplifting in 2014, with wine, accessories, lingerie, razor blades and fresh meat. Increasing installation of EAS system in UK and Europe is expected to drive the Electronic Article Surveillance System Market over the forecast period.
Key players in this industry are Checkpoint Systems Inc., Tekno Electro Solutions, Tyco Retail Solutions, ALL-TAG Security Americas Inc., Ketec Inc., Nedap N.V., Sentry Technology Corp. and Tag Co. Leading players are expanding their product line in order to retain their market shares.
In June 2016, ALL-TAG Security Americas Inc. announced the release of RFID-Ink that allows retailers to combine RFID and EAS into a single tag that will result in double measure of protection for the product.
