Walk through any retail store and you will see the two faces of Electronic Article Surveillance. On a jacket, a hard plastic tag pinned through the seam. On a box of razor blades, a thin white sticker you might not notice at all. Both do the same job, they trip the alarm at the door if they leave the store active, but they get there in very different ways.
If you are stocking a store, the choice between hard tags and labels is not one or the other. Most retailers use both. The real question is which form of protection belongs on which merchandise. Here is how to decide.
Two forms, one system
Hard tags and labels work with the same antennas at your exit. The difference is what happens at checkout. A hard tag is removed with a detacher and goes back into rotation on new merchandise. A label is deactivated at the register and leaves with the customer. Reusable versus single use is the heart of the tradeoff, and almost everything else follows from it.
Hard tags: reusable, visible, built for open merchandise
A hard tag is a molded plastic housing that locks onto merchandise, usually with a pin through the fabric or a lanyard looped through a strap or handle. Shoppers can see it from across the aisle, and that is exactly the point. A visible tag tells shoplifters the item is protected before they ever touch it.
Because staff remove hard tags at the counter, the tags stay in the store and get reused. The cost per tag is higher than a label, but the same tags keep cycling through your inventory for years, so the cost per protected item keeps falling the longer you use them.
Hard tags also come in shapes for merchandise a standard clothing tag does not fit. Lingerie tags keep a smaller profile for delicate garments. Bottle and sports tags secure liquor bottles and similar containers. Wasp tags protect jewelry. Blisterpack tags are made for carded packaging. And for items you cannot put a pin through, like shoes and handbags, a lanyard bridges the gap.
Some hard tags add a second layer of protection called benefit denial. Ink tags and ink pins carry sealed vials of dye that break if the tag is pried off, ruining the stolen item. We covered that strategy in our guide to ink security tags.
Labels: low cost protection for packaged goods
An EAS label is a thin adhesive sticker with the transmitter sealed inside. You stick it on the package, and at checkout the cashier deactivates it at the register. There is nothing to remove and nothing to send back to the floor. The label simply leaves with the product.
Labels cost far less per unit than hard tags, which is what makes them the default for high volume packaged goods. They are also discreet. Plain white labels disappear against most packaging, barcode labels blend in as just another sticker, and black labels match dark products.
The natural home for a label is anything sealed, boxed, or carded: cosmetics, over the counter medicine, electronics accessories, batteries, packaged food. If piercing an item with a pin would damage it, or a plastic housing would look out of place on it, a label is the answer.
Side by side
| Hard tags | Labels | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Molded plastic, pinned or on a lanyard | Thin adhesive sticker |
| At checkout | Removed with a detacher | Deactivated at the register |
| Reuse | Reusable for years | Single use |
| Deterrence | Visible on the merchandise | Discreet, on or inside packaging |
| Cost | Higher per tag, reused many times | Low per label, used once |
| Best for | Apparel, accessories, bottles, jewelry | Boxed, carded, and packaged goods |
How to choose, item by item
- Soft goods you can pin. Apparel, lingerie, and accessories belong in hard tags. The visible deterrent works hardest on open merchandise, and reuse makes the economics work.
- Sealed and packaged goods. Anything boxed or carded gets a label. It is fast to apply, costs little, and never damages the product.
- Bottles, jewelry, and odd shapes. Reach for the specialty hard tags: bottle and sports tags, wasp jewelry tags, blisterpack tags, or a tag on a lanyard.
- Your highest theft items. Consider adding ink tags or ink pins for benefit denial on the products that disappear most often.
Match the technology to your system
Whichever form you choose, it has to speak your system's language. Hard tags and labels both come in AM 58 kHz versions, compatible with Sensormatic systems, and RF 8.2 MHz versions, compatible with Checkpoint systems, and the two are not interchangeable. If you are not sure which technology you run, our AM vs. RF guide shows how to tell them apart. Check before you order, and match every tag and label to the system at your door.
Stock up on both
HarryG Security carries AM hard tags and RF hard tags, labels in both technologies, and the detachers and deactivators that go with them. We have supplied EAS gear to retailers since 2004, so if you are not sure what belongs on your merchandise, tell us what you sell and we will help you sort it out.