SECURITY IN SMART SHOPPING MALLS

Introduction:

The uses of smart technology in shopping malls are both variable and necessary for all shopping malls where shopping mall management wants to provide basic and mandatory technological needs like for security, energy management and conservation as well as for entertainment and commercial aims, customer tracking and data-base obtaining for marketing reasons. The use of technology has been expanding sporadically and if we take into consideration of the fast growing potential of the increasing number of shopping malls each with a unique identity as well as the smart technology applications used in the contemporary shopping malls, we can outdraw the conclusion that the use of smart technologies in the shopping malls will be expanding more and more in the future due to popular demand, advantages and existing wide usage of these smart technologies in the shopping malls and by their customers.

The main reason why these technologies are not used on a wide scale basis is due to financial concerns. In the future we will be witnessing more of these smart technology applications as the cost of these smart technology applications gets more and more economical.

At the end of the day, the success of a mall depends on the footfall, and the enjoyable shopping experience by consumers, which means getting in with no issues, finding a car parking space, picking up a shopping trolley and enjoying their visit in a safe, friendly and clean environment.

SMART SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES The shopping malls use of smart GPRS meter management or cogeneration technology, which covers providing electric and converging it to heat or cold air are among the energy management technology use in shopping malls whereas the use of photocells in fire stairs, escalators and elevators are also a common application used in shopping malls for electrical energy conservation. Smart technology management for security management is an especially overemphasized subject in most of the shopping malls. Barcode readers for shopping mall staff access security cameras and monitors, security walkie-talkies for long distance talk, x-ray devices, under car search mirrors, door detectors and hand detectors which figure the magnetic and nonmagnetic metal objects, as well as fire sensors, emergency evacuation announcement

systems, smoke detectors, gas detectors, magnetic holders for unpermitted access through fire exit doors are among the various smart-technology devices used in shopping malls like Ataköy Plus and Flyinn in Turkey.

Establishing the future of smart shopping

A new showcase "future store" in Germany is the first to use RFID tagging to monitor goods from when they leave the warehouse to the customer's shopping basket

Radio frequency identification tagging has been touted as the next big thing in retail for some years, but developments in Germany indicate the technology is finally ready to move beyond the hype stage.

RFID tags allow goods to be electronically tracked along a supply chain and have the potential to replace barcodes. They are already becoming popular among UK retailers such as Tesco, Woolworths and Marks & Spencer, but their use has been restricted to individual projects, such as tracking food trays or razor blades.

German firm Metro Group, the world's fifth largest retailer, recently opened a "future store" in Berlin which not only uses RFID in the warehouse but also on the shop floor in an attempt to improve customer service - a landmark move, according to analysts.

Metro's use of RFID is so advanced that its technology partners, such as Philips, SAP and Intel, are using the company's future store as a showcase for what retailers can do with RFID and its related technologies.

Metro uses readers at its distribution centre to build a profile of the products on each pallet, with each case on the pallet tagged with UHF chips. This information is then read as the tagged cases and pallets pass through dock doors and at various collection points.

The cases and pallets are scanned at a number of locations to provide accurate shipment, warehouse and shop-floor inventory levels, and this information is then fed into Metro's SAP system.

High-value individual products in the future store, such as CDs, DVDs and videos, are also tagged, along with other products such as razor blades, shampoo and food products, before being put on the "smart" shelves.

Once the goods are on the shelves, an embedded RFID reader sends a message to the back-office system to tell it when stocks are running low.

The reader also traces how quickly stock is being sold, tracks the most popular items and those that are not selling. The product sensors act as anti-theft devices that are shut off at the point of sale, like current security devices.

Checkout delays are reduced because RFID tags in a shopping basket tell the store managers how many baskets have entered and left the store. If the number of baskets in the store increases, additional checkouts are opened.

Metro's future store underlines some of the benefits RFID tagging can bring, such as cutting inventory levels and improving customer service, but companies need to be aware of information management and systems integration issues.

What retailers and other users of this technology need to remember is that tremendous data volumes need to be managed and analyzed. If this data is to be useful, it needs to be consolidated and integrated with the ERP systems that provide purchasing, distribution and logistics.

Take-up of RFID has been relatively slow, with the high cost of tags seen as a major barrier to widespread adoption, but in recent weeks the threat to consumer privacy has been highlighted as another potential drawback.

Last month, fashion retailer Benetton announced it was postponing plans to roll out RFID tags in one of its clothing ranges following protests from privacy groups. There are fears the technology could allow companies to obtain information on customers and track their movements without their knowledge.

In response to this, Royal Philips Electronics, which was due to supply the technology for Benetton, announced it was implementing a new feature into its RFID tags that would disable them at the point-of-sale.

Few Smart Options for Comfort shopping

Personal shopping assistant

Extra Future Card

Kiosk systems

Electronic shelf labeling

Electronic advertising displays

Intelligent scales

Smart checkout 

Self-checkout

RFID checkout

Personal shopping assistant checkout

Couponing system

In-store information

My Metro employee portal

Personal digital assistants

In-store communication

Inventory management

Distribution centre goods issue

Store goods receipt

Back-store inventory

Smart shelves

CDs/books/videos

RFID goods-flow system

RFID alert and information portal

Infrastructure technologies

Wireless Lan.