Key Takeaways
- Sensormatic Solutions says its 60-year evolution from EAS to RFID, traffic insights and analytics reflects a shift from loss prevention to broader retail intelligence.
- President Tony D’Onofrio said tools such as Shrink Analyzer and RFID can help retailers move from reacting to shrink to identifying loss patterns earlier and preventing them.
Sensormatic Solutions turns 60 this year, a company that built its first electronic article surveillance system in 1966 and now partners with more than 2,000 retailers across roughly 185,000 store locations in over 80 countries. That single early invention, born when a retail worker decided there had to be a better way to stop theft, set the course for six decades of retail technology.
Sixty years is a long time to stay relevant in any industry, and retail has changed more than most. Sensormatic Solutions started with alligator tags and sewn-in labels aimed squarely at theft deterrence. Today, its portfolio spans RFID-driven inventory intelligence, shopper traffic insights and analytics engines that turn noisy store data into clear direction. The through line hasn’t changed: start with the retailer’s problem, then build the solution around it.
Tony D’Onofrio, president of Sensormatic Solutions, has spent nearly his entire career in retail, starting as a grocery store bag boy the same year the company began operations. In this Q&A, D’Onofrio covers three subjects that define the company’s next chapter: the shift from loss prevention to total retail intelligence, the role of RFID and tools like Shrink Analyzer in moving shrink management from reactive to proactive, and the rise of hyper-personalization as data-driven retail reshapes how retailers serve individual shoppers.
RFIDJournal.com: As Sensormatic Solutions marks its 60th anniversary, what do you see as the most important milestones that have shaped the company’s role in retail technology?
Tony D’Onofrio: Obviously, the initial spark—t he EAS our founders created back in 1966— remains transformational for the industry. Every incremental step we’ve made since then traces back to that initial belief that technology held the key to improving how things had always been done.
The next milestone for us was the shift from focusing on apprehension to deterrence, which rounded out our first decade. That often gets overlooked in the historical context because it’s a shift in understanding that drove a change in technology as opposed to the other way around. However, the idea that stopping thieves from attempting to steal is more effective than catching them once they have is really the foundation of modern loss prevention.
The expansion of item-level inventory intelligence with RFID is an equally important milestone. The ability to see individual items as they move from source to store has opened a whole new world of possibilities for shrink and loss management and operational understanding at large. That insight has already helped us contextualize decades of operational work in new ways, and it’s a continuous feedback loop that will help us keep reframing what we think we know in the years to come.
Once retailers understand where loss is occurring and have confidence in inventory visibility, they can turn their attention to enhancing store performance. Through shopper behavior and traffic insights, we’ve helped retailers optimize store operations, improve experiences, and drive better outcomes. These three critical areas have enabled retailers to create safer, smarter stores for both shoppers and associates.
RFIDJournal.com: Sensormatic Solutions began with early EAS innovation and has since expanded capabilities to help retailers better understand what is happening across their stores. How do you describe that evolution to retailers today?
D’Onofrio: The technology has evolved, but our focus remains on strengthening our core fundamentals. Sensormatic Solutions first EAS system was the product of a retail worker who identified an issue and thought, “there has to be a better way.” And it’s the belief that there is always a better way to get things done that has really defined our work over the past 60 years.
The tools and solutions at our disposal have changed significantly, helping us to pinpoint challenges more precisely, measure progress more accurately, and try things that would not have been possible in decades past. But the mission and the motivation remain exactly the same as when we began, and the way we approach problem-solving hasn’t changed much either. We still start every project and partnership from the same place our founders did: working with a retailer to identify the challenges they’d most like to solve.
How Sensormatic Solutions Stays Relevant After 60 Years in Retail
RFIDJournal.com: What has allowed Sensormatic Solutions to stay relevant through six decades of change in retail—from theft deterrence to AI-driven, data-rich solutions?
D’Onofrio: Our track record of innovation is obviously a differentiator. It plays a part in our ongoing success, but staying ahead of the curve on emerging tech doesn’t guarantee relevance. In fact, getting caught up in what a given technology makes possible—instead of what’s meaningful to users—is the fastest path to obscurity. That idea has been key to maintaining our standing as a leader in retail technology.
Our deep connection to and relationships within the industry have grounded us throughout the years, so we pursue what customers actually need. The problem comes first, and the solution stems from it. That’s cultivated a culture based on the idea that we are not defined by a specific approach or solution. We are defined by the kinds of problems we excel in solving, the approach we take when solving them, and the outcomes we help retailers achieve.
RFIDJournal.com: You’ve spent decades in retail yourself. From your perspective, what are the biggest ways the retail industry has changed over the past 60 years?
D’Onofrio: The personalization piece is very interesting to me and has been fascinating to watch unfold. I think people focus on personalization as it relates to technology, but we don’t talk about it as much in relation to opportunities for growth.
I started working in retail almost exactly when Sensormatic Solutions began operations. I was a bag boy at a grocery store, and we were in this heyday of modern monoculture. The goal across the board was to convince the public that every product was the right fit for everyone. It wasn’t about finding messaging that resonates with you, specifically. It was about convincing the world that everyone was using this or doing that; to abstain was to be the odd one out.
Now, the whole paradigm has shifted. People want to be seen and served for exactly who they are. Meanwhile, data-driven systems are actually making it possible for retailers to deliver on this expectation—and do it more precisely than most realize.
We can see how shoppers move, interact with products, weigh options and prioritize time and money. We can see how supply chains work and how inventory impacts those shopper behaviors. That opens doors to personalize experiences in more meaningful ways, to move beyond targeted ads or regionalized promotions. The retailers that are getting it right are using unified data to rebuild loyalty programs, find niches no one knew existed and open revenue streams that were previously unthinkable. I believe this emphasis on hyper-personalization is going to be what defines retail success in the coming decade or two.
RFIDJournal.com: Sensormatic Solutions anniversary messaging highlights innovations ranging from alligator tags and sewn-in labels to source tagging and Shrink Analyzer. Which innovations do you think have had the greatest impact on retailers, and why?
D’Onofrio: What’s most impactful to our retailers is our complete technology ecosystem— from our loss prevention to inventory intelligence and traffic insights solutions. All the innovations in our portfolios, taken together, offer the total retail opportunity we’re after. Any one solution, on its own, gives a partial picture of what’s happening and how to fix things. By the same token, any given combination of solutions is designed for the retailer that’s using it; each customer likely has a unique take on which element has delivered the biggest impact for them.
I suppose connected suites could be the single answer, as that’s what brings it all together and gives a tool like Shrink Analyzer, for example, something to analyze. But there would be nothing to unify there without all the other pieces, and I think that understanding—of the need to view retail operations as a comprehensive whole to move forward—might be the most impactful result of our 60 years of work in the space.
How Shrink Analyzer Helps Retailers Prevent Loss Before It Happens
RFIDJournal.com: Shrink remains a top concern for retailers. How are newer solutions like Shrink Analyzer helping retailers move from reacting to loss events to proactively understanding and preventing them?
D’Onofrio: Insight is impact. You can’t fix something you can’t see or don’t fully understand. That’s why shrink couldn’t be measured, and loss mitigation has been a primarily reactive endeavor—until now. There was no way to see beyond the surface of missing items and disappointing numbers.
RFID tracking and similar technologies gave us a way to see beyond the obvious, but that’s only a first step. Shrink Analyzer is the next one: the analytics engine that’s tailor-made to turn noisy retail data into a clear picture of how and where shrink happens in a store, region or enterprise. Armed with that knowledge, retailers can finally start combating shrink before it happens by implementing targeted friction at the points in the supply chain that are most vulnerable to loss.
And that’s the other piece: it expands the definition of what shrink and loss look like. It’s opening retailers’ eyes to the fact that it’s not just on-floor theft that cuts into revenue and inventory issues. It’s also things like delivery mishaps, manufacturing errors, negligence, misplaced merchandise and countless other things.
RFIDJournal.com: Sensormatic Solutions talks about turning ‘total retail loss into total retail opportunity.’ What does that shift in mindset mean in practical terms for retail leaders?
D’Onofrio: Total retail loss implies an inevitability, but visibility, clarity and context make it possible for retailers to change that story. When they see how losses happen, they are given the opportunity to do things differently and in a way that encourages holistic improvement.
Shrink Analyzer’s beyond the exit capabilities bring this idea to life. By moving coverage beyond the exit gate, Shrink Analyzer turns what used to be a single-purpose security signal into a continuous data stream that improves inventory, labor and shopper experience at the same time. As a result, loss prevention stops being a cost center with its own siloed data and becomes part of the broader retail intelligence picture.
It’s a call to action for retailers to broaden their definition of shrink. It’s about cutting waste and loss in every form, such as wasted products, time, space, resources and effort.
How Global Scale Shapes Sensormatic Solutions’ Approach to Innovation
RFIDJournal.com: The company says it partners with more than 2,000 retailers across approximately 185,000 store locations in over 80 countries. How has that global perspective influenced Sensormatic Solutions approach to innovation?
D’Onofrio: It’s critical to how we do what we do. Operating at this scale gives us insights that regionally or nationally localized organizations simply don’t have. As I’ve noted, seeing reality is the first step to fixing problems. It’s as true for us as it is for our retail customers.
Our global scale contextualizes the work we do with individual retailers within the larger industry picture. We can separate what’s universal from what’s regional, cultural or specific to a single retail location and knowing that helps us identify workable solutions at each level. Our Centers of Excellence in Bentonville and A Coruña support this work, as the teams at these facilities are focused on turning global data into localized innovations.
This global scale is also key to some of the unique services we’re able to offer. Source tagging, for example, only works within a network as large as ours. The manufacturers that participate do so because they know that our customer base is big enough to make the partnership worthwhile.
RFIDJournal.com: Looking ahead, what do you believe retailers will need most from technology partners over the next decade—and how is Sensormatic Solutions preparing for that future now?
D’Onofrio: They’ll need the same things they’ve always needed: collaborative and expert counsel, strong relationships and open communication. Sensormatic Solutions is well-versed in providing those things; that’s always been the heart of our business.
What will change, in my opinion, is what constitutes the above. Technology partners will need to develop expertise around change management and implementation, in addition to knowing how technologies work.
Retailers will be looking for technology partners willing to cultivate strong relationships and help them navigate challenges or concerns, both in the short and long term. Increased adoption of data analytics will also play a role here, and retailers will need to continue investing in infrastructure to support expanded insights and access. Once that data is available and retailers are using it at scale, it will fundamentally change what open, transparent communication means in business and customer relationships—and retailers will need partners that can help them navigate that too.