At first, placing a GPS tracker on individual items in case someone steals them might seem grossly inefficient. After all, these devices are still relatively pricey. But exceptionally expensive items, like vehicles, cutting-edge electronics, and jewelry, just might be good candidates for tracker installation. The manufacturer, GPS Intelligence, advertises trackers that are smaller than ever before, making them easy to hide and hard for a thief to notice and dispose of. If a store owner can pull up a map showing the current location of a stolen item, his chances of recovering it and/or helping police capture and prosecute the thief are very good. In addition, notifying the public that GPS trackers are in use would be a powerful deterrent to professional shoplifters looking for an easy target.

Another valuable use for retailers is tracking shipments and containers, rather than individual products. Organized crime groups sometimes steal entire shipments en route from factories and distribution centers to stores. If these shipments contain a large number of expensive products, the loss can be devastating for its owners. A single GPS tracker hidden inside a shipment could allow its owner to keep an eye on its progress and recognize immediately if it was being taken off its original route. Quick action by police would recover the stolen goods as long as they could find them before the thieves discarded the GPS tracker.

Executives at GPS Intelligence, LLC, an Arizona-based tracker manufacturer, hope that by informing retailers of this valuable application of their products, they can sell more of their devices and help make a dent in the annual retail loss rate—currently estimated in the billions of dollars.