Walmart has applied know-how to fight shoplifting at its self-checkout stations. The retailer has launched invisible barcodes on Nice Worth branded objects, permitting customers to easily transfer an merchandise over the scanner for it to be registered, in line with a Each day Mail report.
The invisible barcodes, first launched in 2019 by way of a partnership with Digimarc, are designed to hurry up the checkout course of for each employees and prospects. Whereas beforehand customers needed to seek for and angle objects to scan the seen barcode, the know-how eliminates the necessity for this.
“The scanning velocity goes up considerably,” a Digimarc consultant informed the information outlet. “Looking for barcodes in the course of the scanning course of turns into pointless, which eases the self-scanning for patrons.”
Nevertheless, the invisible barcodes even have an unintended consequence: they make it tougher for shoplifters to pocket objects with out correctly scanning them. That is notably vital as self-checkouts proceed to contribute to retail shrinkage.
Different massive supermarkets, similar to Wegmans, have additionally adopted invisible barcodes.
