Retailers today face an escalating battle against retail theft—one that demands smarter strategies and more intelligent tools. As pushout theft and organized retail crime become more prevalent and aggressive, retailers must move beyond reactive loss prevention methods. It’s no longer just about recovering merchandise—it’s about preventing incidents before they happen, keeping employees safe, and turning every event into meaningful, actionable data.
Gatekeeper Systems is meeting this moment with a powerful solution: Purchek® Technology. What was once seen as a simple deterrent against shopping cart theft has evolved into a sophisticated intelligence system that not only protects merchandise but also empowers retailers to make better operational decisions—faster, smarter, and more efficiently than ever before.
The Modern Reality of Retail Loss Prevention
Security guards at exits, CCTV footage, and manual investigations were once considered enough. But in today’s environment—where incidents can go viral in seconds, and criminal tactics evolve rapidly—these tools simply don’t keep up. What’s needed is a dynamic approach that bridges prevention and intelligence.
Retailers need more than deterrents. They need real-time visibility. They need automation. They need tools that connect the dots—not just after an incident has occurred but before it impacts profit, safety, or reputation. That’s where the solutions offered by Gatekeeper Systems come in.
What Sets Purchek® Apart
At its core, Purchek® is a cart behavior-based system that automatically stops shopping carts filled with unpaid merchandise from exiting a store. It locks the cart wheels at the door, deterring theft without confrontation. But what truly sets it apart is what happens after the cart is stopped.
Each triggered event captures a 20-second high-definition video clip, records key metadata such as time, location, and cart contents, and feeds it into a centralized investigative system. It’s not just prevention—it’s intelligence in action.
Retailers receive Situational Awareness Reporting to know:
- When theft attempts are most likely to occur.
- Where repeat offenses are concentrated within store layouts.
- What products are being targeted most frequently.
- Who the suspected offenders are, including identification of ORC patterns.
This level of insight allows LP teams to make smarter decisions: adjusting guard placement, repositioning merchandise, or redesigning store layouts to mitigate risk before it escalates.
From Prevention to Intelligence: A Fully Integrated System
Purchek® becomes exponentially more effective when paired with Gatekeeper Systems’ managed services and innovative face matching technology, FaceFirst, an AI-powered facial recognition solution now part of Gatekeeper Systems’ offering.
The FaceFirst solution enables real-time offender alerts. If a known pushout offender re-enters the store, FaceFirst can notify LP teams immediately—before any incident takes place. The result is a shift from reactive surveillance to proactive protection.
“With the addition of FaceFirst to the Gatekeeper Systems portfolio and the ability to alert managers that known offenders have entered the store with actionable direction, the scenario changes from reactive to proactive. This changes the game.”
—Mike Lamb, veteran loss prevention executive
In-store teams are no longer left guessing. Instead, they gain:
- Rapid event classification and tagging by professional investigators.
- Seamless integration with case management systems.
- Chain-wide visibility into theft patterns and operational vulnerabilities.
With Purchek® and FaceFirst working in tandem, loss prevention becomes a coordinated, intelligence-led operation across the entire retail network.
A Smarter Framework for Retail Security
Gatekeeper Systems recommends a structured, five-phase approach that transforms pushout prevention into a cycle of continuous improvement:
- Detect: Identify theft attempts automatically with cart-locking and HD video capture.
- Verify: Gatekeeper’s investigative team confirms and classifies incidents, enabling loss prevention teams to focus on strategic tasks.
- Enroll: Following store policies, verified offenders are enrolled to FaceFirst’s encrypted database with policy-driven response actions.
- Enrich: Merge data from multiple sources (e.g., CCTV, license plate readers, visitor history) to build offender profiles.
- Action: Distribute intelligence across departments for immediate changes in staffing, store layout, and theft response protocols. Prepare cases for prosecution against your most rampant offenders.
Each phase feeds the next, enabling LP teams to stay ahead of emerging threats while strengthening interdepartmental collaboration—from operations to merchandising to IT.
Real-World Impact Across the Enterprise
The benefits of the Purchek® ecosystem go far beyond security. It’s about total retail health:
- Reduced Shrink: Fewer thefts mean fewer lost sales.
- Violence Prevention: Less confrontations at the door, just locked carts and a clear message to would-be offenders.
- Improved Efficiency: LP teams are freed from hours of video review and empowered with actionable summaries.
- Staff Optimization: Use data to schedule employees where and when they’re most needed.
- Faster Response Time: Detect emerging threats in near real-time and act before loss compounds.
In short, it turns every incident into an opportunity for strategic improvement.
Why It Matters Now
Retail theft is no longer an isolated nuisance—it’s a national concern, affecting not just merchandise but safety, labor efficiency, and the shopper experience. As Mike Lamb, a veteran LP executive and strategic advisor, explains: “No single solution is a silver bullet, but Purchek® is one arrow every retailer should have in their quiver.”
The question isn’t whether retailers should invest in better loss prevention—it’s how fast they can transform it into a competitive advantage.
See It in Action at NRF Protect 2025
Ready to experience how Purchek® and FaceFirst work together to transform retail security?
Join us at NRF Protect 2025, taking place June 23–25 in Grapevine, TX, and discover the future of theft prevention. Gatekeeper Systems will be at booth #622, and you can find FaceFirst at booth #308.
Our team will be on-site to demonstrate how integrated technologies stop pushout theft at the door while delivering the insights you need to protect your people, your products, and your profits.
Smarter prevention starts here. Let’s connect at NRF Protect.
