Lowe’s plans to thwart retail crime
Lowe’s is applying cutting-edge technologies, including a first-for-home-improvement use of blockchain and low-cost RFID – a solution named Project Unlock – to help solve an age-old yet ever-growing problem: Organized retail crime.
“We are inventing the technology that makes at-purchase activation and transparent purchase records possible so we can tackle theft in a way that is virtually invisible to our customers,” said Seemantini Godbole, executive VP, chief digital and information officer at Lowe’s.
Organized retail crime has been on the rise, and a statistic Lowe’s provided from the National Retail Federation shows that, as of 2020, organized retail crime has cost retailers an average of about $700,000 for every $1 billion in sales.
While others are working to tackle this problem, said Lowe’s, the retailer believes there are better ways to curb theft than locking products down.
“Project Unlock combines low-cost RFID chips and IoT sensors to activate power tools at the point of purchase, while also creating a secure, publicly accessible, and anonymized record of legitimate purchases, powered by blockchain,” said the company.
Lowe’s has built a blockchain record that verifies and tracks all legitimate purchases, making it easy for buyers to see if they are buying stolen goods, and for law enforcement to crack down on crime rings, said the firm.
To make this work, a unique tag is created for each physical product by the manufacturer. The tag is preloaded with the item’s serial number.
A customer takes the product to checkout, has it barcode-scanned and pays, and a POS RFID scanner reads the tag and unlocks.
“Only products that are legitimately purchased are activated,” said the company.
The proof of concept starts with power tools, said Lowe’s, but the retailer sees potential to use this invisible blockchain and RFID system for other items in its stores – and across the entire retail ecosystem.
“We see a future in which solutions like Project Unlock can help the entire retail ecosystem create a great environment for our customers,” said Godbole.