Macy’s Cranking up RFID Use to Combat Organized Retail Crime

Macy’s has cranked up its use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to protect its assets as reports of high-profile retail thefts are increasing across the U.S., according to a report in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday (Feb. 8).

When retailers use RFID tags on their merchandise, they can access real-time information on where and when products are being stolen, Joe Coll, vice president of asset protection, operations and strategy at Macy’s, said in the report. RFID tags can also help the company better target its security protocols, he said.

“RFID plays a huge part for us from an investigative standpoint,” Coll said Tuesday on a webinar hosted by trade publication RFID Journal.

The National Retail Federation said last year that almost two-thirds (64%) of loss-prevention experts have made organized retail crime — where items are stolen to be resold — more of a priority as the number of incidents have increased.

That includes so-called “flash mob” thefts at Nordstrom Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., Louis Vuitton and other stores.

RFID offers detailed information on the stock-keeping unit, size and color of stolen items that can be given to law enforcement, he said. The tags are often stickers with a metallic overlay attached to an item, said Sandeep Unni, senior director analyst in Gartner’s retail industry research practice, per WSJ.

Macy’s started using RFID in 2013, collecting data when the chip goes through “smart exits” equipped with sensors, said Coll, allowing the company to access video footage to figure out who took the item and where they took it.

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Simon Property Group CEO David Simon points the finger at local officials for failing to act quickly enough to prevent or slow down the organized retail crime trend.

“I don’t think it’s an industry issue,” he said. “I think it’s a local jurisdiction issue and it’s a nationwide issue.” Simon told analysts that his company was doing better than most in fighting the problem, but was still being victimized.

“I would love to be immune but we as a nation have to address this as it’s happening in a lot of different areas,” he said. “‘I don’t think the industry can solve it. I think it’s got to be [addressed] at the local and national level.”