Tyco Retail Solutions First To Market Mobile Handheld Acousto-Magnetic Deactivator

All-in-One Scanner Deactivator Helps Retailers Improve Transaction Throughput and Reduce Nuisance Alarms to Enhance Customer Experience

Neuhausen Switzerland‎ (Marketwired) - Tyco Retail Solutions (www.tycoretailsolutions.com), a leading global provider of retail performance and security solutions, today announced the launch of the first Sensormatic Mobile Handheld Deactivator. This new all-in-one unit enables rapid and easy deactivation of Acousto-Magnetic (AM) Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) labels during the barcode scanning process for faster transaction throughput. Lightweight yet durable, this portable deactivation scanner device was developed to improve the customer experience by increasing speed at checkout and reducing nuisance alarms responsible for causing unnecessary customer inconvenience. Tyco's latest innovation helps retailers, especially those selling large, bulky items like Do-It-Yourself (DIY) stores and mass merchants, increase productivity so sales associates can spend more time servicing customers.

Designed to easily connect to handheld barcode scanners, Tyco developed the breakthrough Sensormatic Mobile Deactivator to enable store associates to simply and rapidly scan and deactivate all protected items in the shopping cart without lifting them onto the counter, thereby improving both customer checkout throughput and deactivation rates.

One of Tyco's large home improvement retail customers identified reducing checkout time, especially for heavyweight items, as an opportunity for improving their shoppers' experience. They recognized some point of sale (POS) processes were time consuming, inefficient, inaccurate and could require cashiers to lift heavy merchandise.

By working with Tyco to deploy the Sensormatic Mobile Handheld Deactivator, the DIY retailer has seen great results as the mobility feature allows cashiers better flexibility to scan and deactivate heavy, bulky items in the shopping cart, increasing productivity and customer focus. This retailer also found the device helps reduce heavy-lifting related injuries and decrease nuisance alarms at the door by 50 percent, as sales associates do not miss tags on large items. In addition, since labels can only be deactivated after they are scanned for purchase, the retailer is tackling internal theft and helping create only true alarm events. With this level of deactivation intelligence and control they are helping prevent employee theft, scan avoidance and merchandise switching.

Key retailer benefits:

• Speeds transaction throughput to enhance the customer experience, by enabling one-step scan and AM deactivation
• Provides consistent deactivation of hidden, source applied AM labels
• Reduces nuisance EAS alarms at the door, improving employee productivity
• Helps prevent heavy lifting by presenting the merchandise to a counter mounted deactivator
• Frees valuable space at the POS by not having to install deactivator in the counter
• Intuitively guides associates with color LEDs and audible alerts to know device is working properly
• Delivers reliable operation despite everyday drops, bumps and exposure to dust and liquids

Tyco's new deactivator also offers retailers substantial ergonomic benefits. These advantages were recently confirmed by United States Ergonomics, which Tyco engaged to conduct testing with the goal of quantifying the comfort and performance of Tyco's Sensormatic Mobile Handheld Deactivator. Experienced cashiers from large retailers participated in testing and performed a range of checkout scenarios that involved the measurement of muscle effort, productivity, comfort and performance. Results indicated measureable and significant advantages using the Sensormatic Mobile Handheld Deactivator during cart scans versus the traditional countertop deactivating procedure:

• Reduced checkout time for completing cart scan by up to 47%, improving operational efficiency
• Reduced total muscle effort by up to 56% and reduced maximum or peak muscle efforts by up to 35% during cart scanning
• Earned a high performance rating for efficiency and speed, ease of use, overall effort, and amount of product handling required

"Retailers are increasingly turning to emerging technology to enrich the in-store shopping experience," said Nancy Chisholm, Vice President and General Manager, Tyco Retail Solutions. "When this major DIY retail customer needed a mobile device that could help associates check out customers faster, more accurately and efficiently -- while keeping assets secure and employees safe -- they turned to Tyco Retail Solutions. Our partnership was instrumental in helping us develop and deliver an innovative product that benefits our global customer base and maximizes their investment in AM EAS technology."

About Tyco Retail Solutions
Tyco Retail Solutions is a leading provider of integrated retail performance and security solutions, deployed today at more than 80 percent of the world's top 200 retailers. Customers range from single-store boutiques to global retail enterprises. Operating in more than 70 countries worldwide, Tyco Retail Solutions provides retailers with real-time visibility to their inventory and assets to improve operations, optimize profitability, and create memorable shopper experiences.

The Tyco Retail Solutions portfolio for retailers is sold direct through Tyco businesses and authorized business partners around the world. For more information, please visitTycoRetailSolutions.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and our YouTube channel.

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