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By Matt Pillar, editor in chief

As the percentage of goods lost to shrink outpaces the small annual sales gains we've seen in recent years, retailers are forced to spend more on the security of goods from source to store shelf. To that end, advances in GPS technology are appealing from the standpoint of functionality, but is the cost of the technology limiting its adoption?

Available in slim form factors and covert housings, the new generation of GPS asset tracking devices is like something out of a James Bond movie. They're small — measuring only a couple of inches in width and length and less than an inch thick — and with little power consumption they offer real-time tracking for weeks at a time. Their tiny form factors and mundane housings allow them to go unnoticed when strategically placed.

There's little doubt that the value of real-time asset tracking has the potential to thwart the loss of millions, if not billions of dollars that retailers lose to organized crime rings and cargo thieves. With law enforcement assistance, recovery of stolen goods is far from a lost cause when a GPS transmitter is part of the equation. Insomuch as GPS transmitters enable cell tower triangulation, and cell towers are a ubiquitous staple of our modern communication infrastructure, GPS allows the location of missing assets within buildings, densely populated urban areas, and rural no-mans-land. Little geography remains out of the GPS scope.

Increased deployment of unseen GPS devices in the millions of cartons and containers that traverse the country's retail supply chain would undoubtedly deter organized crime rings and others of criminal ilk from attempts at supply chain theft. Those who attempt it anyway run the risk of being caught red-handed in short order, which could have considerable impact on the criminal underworld while facilitating the recovery of millions — or billions — in otherwise lost merchandise.

The GPS tracking technology advances that enable the possibility of unprecedented recovery rates include live-tracking of assets at sub-minute intervals and automated, real time e-mail or SMS alerts to LP professionals when a carton or product broaches a pre-designated geographical boundary.

I think it's only a matter of time before GPS devices are also able to automate some form of "benefit denial," rendering the merchandise it's associated with worthless or unusable if it falls into the wrong hands or otherwise goes unaccounted for. Read more about the future of benefit denial technologies in How Do You Prove ROI On An Idea? by Best Buy Director Of Asset Protection And Safety Tim Fisher.

With the benefit of anytime, virtually anywhere asset visibility, why aren't more retailers deploying GPS devices for tracking? The cost of the devices remains an issue in some segments. Miniature, dedicated devices sell in the range of $150 to $300 each, a reasonable expense for container and fleet tracking, but limiting the technology's appeal at the item level for all but the highest-priced, most stolen goods. Expect to pay far more for sophisticated features, though the more sophisticated the device the higher the ROI potential, and there's much more to the ROI of modern GPS solutions than asset tracking and recovery alone. Today's sophisticated GPS-driven software applications allow route- and delivery-intensive retailers to save significant fuel costs through route optimization, and losses due to spoilage and inefficient delivery execution can be minimized by deploying devices that monitor time and temperature. Some solutions even enable managers to monitor idling time, further lending to the opportunity to minimize fuel costs.

What do you think about the role of GPS in retail asset security? What are the biggest opportunities the technology presents? Comment here, or e-mail me at matt.pillar@jamesonpublishing.com.