Retail product protection: what’s hot in 2026?

Retail product protection works when it cuts theft while keeping products easy to buy.

It also has to fit into a working day full of deliveries, replenishment and customers who need help.

At our September working group, retailers shared what they were using, testing and planning. Three themes stood out:

• AI that gives store teams an earlier warning of possible theft.
• Smart shelves and cabinets that detect removal or control access.
• Divided views on EAS, with source tagging a priority for retailers continuing to use it.

1. AI gives store teams an earlier warning

Amazon Go demonstrated what cameras and shelf sensors could make possible when its first store opened to the public in 2018.

Customers could pick up products and leave without stopping at a checkout. The system worked out what they had taken and charged them.

Retailers are exploring other uses for computer vision and video analytics, including concealment detection, facial recognition and missed scans.

These offer opportunities to respond before someone reaches the exit.

Concealment alerts

One retailer described AI reviewing CCTV footage and sending concealment alerts to colleagues’ handheld devices.

Staff could assess what was happening while the person was still shopping, reducing time spent watching for theft.

The retailer reported that responding at the shelf could allow a less confrontational resolution than waiting until the exit.

Colleagues still had to decide what was safe, and goods were not always recovered.

Concealment does not necessarily mean theft. Someone might put a product in their own bag or under a pushchair and still intend to pay.

Separately, The Grocer reported a claim by Iceland’s technology supplier of an 80% reduction in theft losses following the retailer’s AI rollout.

The report described images and footage reaching colleagues within eight seconds of suspicious activity being confirmed.

Facial recognition

Facial recognition can alert teams when someone entering matches a person on a watchlist.

In earlier conversations, retailers described using this information to help build evidence of repeat offending for police, or arranging for colleagues to respond during the visit.

Returning to a store is not itself evidence of another theft.

The retailer using concealment alerts also described a facial recognition trial linked to footage of previous incidents.

Its policy was not to approach someone because of a face alert. Colleagues could review the information and decide together how to respond.

Self-checkout

Another participant was rolling out fruit and vegetable recognition, with further fraud detection uses planned.

The retailer using concealment alerts also stressed that unpaid products can result from mistakes as well as deliberate theft.

Our self-checkout research explores these risks and controls.

Other alerts and visible deterrents

Not every alert involved AI. One retailer used a separate dwell-time detector to flag when someone stayed in an area beyond a set time.

Many alerts involved ordinary shopping, and colleagues offered help.

Participants also described public view monitors: screens showing camera footage at entrances, in higher-risk aisles and at self-checkouts.

Signs and shelf messages reinforced the awareness of monitoring, aiming to discourage theft before it happened.

Retailers also discussed camera coverage, what each system detected and how staff responded.

2. Smarter shelves and cabinets protect products

The smart shelves discussed used weight sensors, not AI, to detect sudden changes when several products were removed together and alert colleagues.

One retailer was testing them across meat, beauty and spirits. It tracked responses and outcomes to understand whether staff acted on alerts.

A shelf can signal movement, but someone still needs to establish what happened.

Other fixtures slowed removal without relying on alerts:

• Shaped trays held products separately, making them harder to sweep off shelves.
• Sliding panels limited access to part of a shelf.
• Dispensers released one can at a time.

Some cabinets opened after a short delay without staff assistance.

Digital locks produced mixed experiences: one retailer reported high equipment, licensing and infrastructure costs, with lower customer take-up than expected.

Another already let staff open cases through an app. It was exploring access for shoppers and people picking online orders, potentially reducing waits for assistance.

Some retailers were reducing reliance on cabinets; others still found them worthwhile in their highest-risk stores, despite the work involved in serving customers.

3. EAS divides opinion; source tagging remains a priority

Retailers had contrasting views on electronic article surveillance (EAS): the tags and gates that trigger alarms at store exits.

One was installing digital gates that detected tags and carried paid advertising.

Another had stopped buying tags and replacing broken gates, seeing little value in alarms when staff could not challenge those triggering them.

For retailers continuing with tags, source tagging was a priority: suppliers applying protection before delivery, reducing work for store colleagues.

One retailer was extending source tagging to more products.

Another received promotional stock with protective wraps fitted, but found everyday replenishment harder to organise because stores needed different levels of protection.

Retailers also described involving buyers, suppliers and designers earlier, building protection into trays and displays to avoid fitting equipment after delivery.

Our Design Against Crime report explores ideas for protective packaging and displays.

What makes retail product protection worth the investment?

Across all three themes, retailers were testing solutions against problems in their stores.

They assessed losses and sales, customer access, and the time needed to replenish, apply protection and respond to alerts.

Several trials were still under way.

Retailers were considering results, staff responses and customer feedback before extending solutions to other products or stores.

Our discussion on balancing product protection with shopper access explores these choices further.