Project Unlock

Over the last few years, theft – driven in part by organized groups – has risen for the entire retail industry. The net result has been locked-down store experiences that penalize customers.

We think there are ways to make anti-theft measures invisible, frictionless for customers, and cost-effective to implement – and our team’s experience with hardware and emerging software led us to develop Project Unlock.   

At the heart of Project Unlock is the ability to activate a powered product after it has been legitimately purchased – rendering a stolen tool inoperable and virtually worthless. 
 

To make this work: in the manufacturing process, a manufacturer embeds a wireless RFID (radio frequency identity) chip into a powered product. The tag is preloaded with that item’s unique serial number – which is also embedded in the box’s barcode – and the product is set to inoperable.

At the store, a customer takes the product to the register, gets the barcode scanned, and pays – just like they always do. A point-of-sale RFID scanner reads all tags in range, finds the tool with the correct serial number, and writes a unique secret key value that activates the tool for use.

Only products that are legitimately purchased are activated. If a power tool is stolen, it won’t work, which makes it less valuable to steal.

Project Unlock also uses blockchain to create a secure, publicly accessible, anonymized record of authentic product purchases. 

We see a future in which capabilities like Project Unlock can help the entire retail ecosystem create a great environment for our customers. 

If you’d like to learn more about Project Unlock or are inspired to explore ways to fight retail theft together, please reach out to us at ProjectUnlock@Lowes.com.