Walmart has taken a big step toward lowering theft at its self-checkout stations by adding a new feature that helps honest customers and makes it harder for thieves to steal.
Walmart’s new self-checkout system
In a recent TikTok video that has been watched over 200,000 times, a Walmart buyer talked about an interesting find. In the video, she scans Great Value things at a Walmart self-checkout machine without using a normal barcode. This shocking news has gotten a lot of attention online.
Walmart has teamed up with Digimarc, a tech business that specializes in advanced barcode technology, to bring you this cutting-edge feature. Walmart has been spending $3 million a year to use Digimarc’s new technological options in its stores.
Digimarc’s website says that the technology puts codes on packages that are “invisible to the human eye.” Self-checkout machines can easily read these codes, which speeds up the reading process and makes it harder for theft to happen.
Walmart and Digimarc worked together more closely in 2022 to improve how their stores ran even more. The goal of this improvement is to make shopping better for paid customers while also making theft less likely.
- Invisible Codes: The embedded codes are undetectable to the naked eye, ensuring a seamless shopping experience.
- Enhanced Security: The technology makes it more challenging for thieves to bypass the checkout process.
- Operational Efficiency: The new system helps Walmart streamline its store operations.
As Walmart keeps coming up with new ideas and technologies, these improvements should make shopping more enjoyable for honest customers and make it harder for thieves to steal from self-checkout stations.
Digimarc’s technology partner Datalogic says that the screening speed has sped up a great deal. Digimarc said in a press release, “Looking for barcodes during the scanning process is no longer necessary, which makes it easier for customers to scan their own items.” The image cameras can also pick up more than one item at the same time.
Walmart’s Response to Rising Theft
With these scary numbers, it’s no surprise that Walmart is stepping up its efforts to make self-checkout machines better at finding things that haven’t been scanned. Gitnux recently released a study that said the company loses a lot of money to theft—an estimated $3 billion a year.
Walmart Faces Increasing Inventory Losses
Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner said on a results call on August 17 that merchandise losses in U.S. stores due to theft, damage, and other causes have been on the rise. In other words, “shrink.”
“This year, shrink has gone up a bit,” Furner said. “It went up last year.” It’s not the same all over the country.
Because these problems are getting worse, Walmart has improved its self-checkout technology to cut down on theft, both by chance and on purpose. Walmart hopes that by making these systems better, they will be able to better control their inventory and lessen the financial effects of shrink.
Dealing with these problems is important not only for Walmart but for the whole retail business as things keep changing. Self-checkout lanes with better protection are a step toward a safer and more efficient shopping experience for both customers and stores.
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