Organized retail crime has increasingly become a significant threat to businesses. Advanced solutions and technologies for detecting and managing these theft events are essential, as they help retailers quickly identify patterns, mitigate loss, and strengthen their overall security strategies. Investing in innovative identification technologies may be more vital than ever when it comes to protecting your retail business.
As ORC continues to rise, retailers are increasingly turning to data-driven solutions to combat these losses and enhance their overall security strategies.
Recognizing this growing problem, Sensormatic Solutions’ suite of tools is designed to turn data into actionable insights and those insights into strategic, impactful actions, enabling retailers to make the most accurate decisions.
In January, Sensormatic Solutions unveiled Shrink Analyzer at NRF Big Show in New York. This advanced tool enables end users—particularly investigators—to expedite case development by enhancing visibility into bulk theft incidents and identifying items leaving the store without a point-of-sale transaction. By synchronizing this data with video footage, Shrink Analyzer streamlines the investigative process and improves efficiency.
“What we’ve been focusing on with our Shrink Analyzer tool, is to determine what’s leaving the store, at the item level, that did not have a corresponding point of sale event with it is likely a shrink event,” said Jamie Kress, director of RFID sales at Sensormatic Solutions. “We can then tie that event to video to see the person stealing that item. Often, you can then back that up into other store video as well, and see the time that they’re concealing those items, creating a full picture of the incident from initial concealment through the stores and ultimately out the exit without a POS event.”
Shrink Analyzer aggregates all the data from a store and filters out the significant amount of “noise” in a retail environment, only supplying the investigators with actionable data.
Eliminating time-consuming manual processes is crucial, allowing retailers to allocate more time to the sales floor and to engage with customers, rather than being bogged down by administrative tasks.
“We developed [Shrink Analyzer] to be an agnostic tool, meaning that retailers can utilize Shrink Analyzer whether they have our Sensormatic TrueVUE RFID inventory solution in place, a competitive inventory solution, or they don’t have an inventory solution at all,” Kress said. Configurability is key to the Sensormatic Solutions approach, as Kress also noted, “We have not yet come across a unique requirement that makes loss prevention using RFID unsupportable. Some environments and retail verticals have been more challenging than others, but we have been able to design solutions with Shrink Analyzer and TrueVUE Cloud which ultimately meet the requirements of each retailer.”
Diving deeper, the tool can also help retailers make store operational improvements to combat theft and better understand both red and green shoppers to enhance sales and the user experience.
For the red shopper, Kress explains that Shrink Analyzer can give retailers better and more accurate data so LP professionals can identify particular times of the day when shrink occurs and re-evaluate staffing needs based on those high shrink hours or even particular areas of the store that are being hit during those peak hours.
Regarding the green shopper, Kress said, “Once retailers have the data to drive more precise processes in the store, they can spend more time selling and being with customers.”
Through these advantageous improvements, retailers can expect to achieve a return on investment with Shrink Analyzer within a remarkably short timeframe, typically within twelve months based on the complexity of the solution deployed.
Sensormatic is also finding that the efficiency and simplicity of the Shrink Analyzer solution is apparent when comparing an LP-focused RFID pilot to a more complete inventory accuracy RFID pilot program.
“Shrink-based pilots offer a straightforward approach compared to traditional RFID pilots for Inventory Accuracy,” said Kress. “They involve fewer groups and can be easily supported by loss prevention teams, with minimal input needed from a retailer’s IT department. This simplicity means that integration, change management, and hardware deployment are much easier, allowing retailers to see immediate returns on investment. While traditional inventory pilots can yield substantial benefits, they often necessitate more focus on change management and integration, impacting many stakeholders throughout the enterprise. In contrast, shrink-based programs deliver targeted results with less complexity.”
An RFID pilot opens a world of opportunity; learn more about how Shrink Analyzer can transform your loss prevention program at sensormatic.com.
