Self-Serve Drill Bits Are a CIAM Use Case

This is something I heard on an Odd Lots podcast about retail, shrink and theft that seemed like a great CIAM use case.

We’ve all been in those drugstores where, to prevent theft, there’s a locked plastic barrier between you and the item. It’s like a product cage or something. You usually have to push a doorbell or a button, which gets an employee to come over, unlock the door and give you access to the item.

On the podcast, Home Depot's VP of Asset Protection said they were working on the ability for someone to self-serve this interaction rather than wait for an employee. Home Depot is trying to protect against theft, especially of small, high-value items like drill bits. At the same time, they want to avoid inconveniencing their loyal customers. This matters because time is money for contractors.

If you have customers enrolled in your loyalty program, you can send them a one-time link to the phone number or email address on file, and they can unlock the secured product themselves.

Here’s how it would work: you’d have a kiosk that responds either to a button or has a little QR code. If a customer wants to self-serve, they click the link or scan the QR code and enter their account credentials. Or they might already be logged in, maybe automatically, if they’ve logged in recently on their phone. Then you can unlock the system.

(I’ve had similar interactions at Target, where I didn’t actually have a loyalty membership. I entered my phone number and clicked a link that was texted to me. Just proving I had a valid phone number, which they could then track, was enough. I imagine Target combines that proof of number with a video record of me unlocking the door and that helps prevent fraud.)

In the Home Depot scenario, you still need an employee-summoning button for everybody who is not a member of the loyalty program, but this loyalty-program product-cage unlocking system serves three goals.

The first goal is to protect the product. This system still has a barrier, so there is less theft. This is good in terms of not losing product, but another benefit is that website inventory stays accurate. A contractor doesn’t run into a store thinking they still have 10 drill bits when there are none.

The second goal is to minimize inconvenience for anyone who is part of your loyalty program. They’re more inconvenienced than if they could just grab the drill bit, but at least access is in their control and can happen quickly.

The last goal is promotion of the loyalty program. That’s probably the least valuable part of this solution, but it’s still a benefit.

This is just another example of CIAM in the real world, where having an identity and access management system tied to your customers decreases friction and increases security.