Loss Prevention

From The Retail Equation. Consumer technology companies like Apple no longer have the corner on the market for mobile technology at the point of sale. Recently, several major retailers have publicly announced the adoption of mobile retail practices to enhance the customer experience...and increase the bottom line. They understand that the longer a consumer waits in the store for customer service or in line to checkout, the longer they have to consider whether they need the items and the more likely they are to postpone the purchase or walk away all together. Mobile technology nearly eradicates this time hassle by offering the customer the opportunity to check stock or checkout from anywhere in the store. However, in doing so it can present challenges when trying to merge this sought after mobility with the concepts of best-in-class merchandise return capabilities, while keeping retail fraud under control.

Growing in severity, number and type, retailers are reporting organized retail crime (ORC) has become more troublesome than ever before. Of the 125 retail companies surveyed for NRF’s eighth annual Organized Retail Crime Survey, a record-setting (96.0%) say their company has been the victim of organized retail crime in the past year,

The National Retail Federation’s Organized Retail Crime survey, now in its seventh year, is conducted every spring to gauge the impact and severity of organized retail crime. This year’s survey collects information from a variety of retailers, ranging from restaurants to department stores to specialty retailers and grocery stores. Insights of senior retail loss prevention executives from 129 retail companies are included in this report.

The Retail Equation (TRE) is pleased to incorporate the results of the NRF 2010 Return Fraud Survey into the 2010 Customer Returns in the Retail Industry report.

The purpose of the 2010 Organized Retail Crime Survey is to understand the impact of organized retail crime on retailers across the country. By measuring trends and operational methods of criminal enterprises, retailers will be in a better position to respond to this industry-wide issue, which has significant repercussions on consumers, brands and local economies.

From Ionit Technologies. It’s undisputed that organizations run better when employees have access to timely, actionable information. Understanding shopper behavior in stores is paramount to improving operations and increasing sales and profits. Video centric business intelligence systems correlate shopper behavior data from multiple systems and automatically deliver actionable reports to help hold companies to internal performance benchmarks.

From The Retail Equation. Organized retail crime is a serious, expensive problem that's only been enhanced by the economy. To date, these criminals have typically been nameless, faceless individuals with no predictable pattern to their fraud. While some retailers have tried to link offenders by reviewing incident reports or security tapes, the individual crimes remain difficult to connect because of their sheer size and scope, and the complexity of the data needed. A newly identified method, however, intelligently sifts through the data and identifies organized crime rings - presenting a new way to link individuals and graphically display retail fraud rings.

From Gatekeeper Systems. As sales volumes decrease in a down economy, shoplifting is on the rise. The use of the Internet and online auction sites makes distribution of stolen merchandise easier than ever before. Savvy shoplifters to organized crime rings have found that with the use of shopping carts, they can look less conspicuous and retrieve more items in one swoop, rolling large volumes of unpaid goods right out the door. Learn more about solutions to dramatically reduce shopping cart based theft coined “pushout” theft.

From Torex. Many retailers are doing all they can to keep their businesses afloat, offering affordable deals to compete with rival stores and encouraging customer loyalty within their shops. However, one activity which threatens to undermine retailers’ efforts is slipping under the radar: internal losses. With this in mind, what steps can retailers take to help to ensure profits are not drained away by the actions of disloyal employees?

Grant Thornton LLP. Theft is a perennial risk for nearly all retailers. Depending upon the strength of their internal controls, retailers can be particularly vulnerable to internal losses at the point of sale. Most retailers do a good job controlling their inventories and handling their bulk cash. However, it is the small transactions at the counter where the biggest losses can occur. With numerous ways for an employee to commit a theft at the point of sale, many of these thefts will go undetected without the proper audit procedures in place. This article highlights nine of the most common examples of retail fraud.

From Applied Predictive Technologies. Sorting through the many options to reduce shrink is complicated enough, but understanding the true impact of any Loss Prevention approach is even more difficult. Different Loss Prevention approaches can have significantly different impacts not only across different retail concepts, but also store-by-store within a retailer’s network– some Loss Prevention strategies create significant value in some stores while destroying value in others. A growing number of leading retailers are em¬ploying Test & Learn approaches to optimize their investments and activities in marketing, mer¬chandising, retail operations, human resources and capital upgrades. This white paper reviews the lessons they are learning.

The purpose of the annual organized retail crime survey is to understand the impact of this issue on retailers across the country. By measuring trends and operational methods of criminal enterprises, retailers will be in a better position to respond to this industry-wide issue, which has significant repercussions on consumers, brands and local economies.