Inventory "shrink" is the retail jargon for
ceaseless loss of purchased inventory for sale.
Interestingly, the Food Marketing Institute in 2011 found only 36% was
due to theft, while the other 64% was discovered to be the result of deficiencies in store operations and
procedures. There are both simple ideas
and sophisticated solutions to address this challenge.
Overripe produce
is something that needs to be monitored closely. Inspect stock routinely taking quick
resourceful action sending select items to the deli or prepared foods to be
used as ingredients. Find creative ways
to display items at or near the checkout to lure last minute impulse purchases.
Theft deterrence is sometimes easily achieved by well placed
employees stocking in high theft aisles at various times or floating around the
store approaching customers asking if they need any assistance. This technique both discourages shoplifters
while also improving your customer service image with your clientele.
Ongoing cashier training can go a long way to help reduce
shrink at the POS. Simply not being able
to differentiate cheaper
mass-produced lettuce and higher-priced artisan lettuce negatively impacts the
grocery store's profits, also impacting accurate inventory management. Some cashiers may find it easier to hand-key
merchandise and coupons instead of following best practices of reporting and
addressing scanning issues immediately to ensure accuracy.
Your POS
exception reporting is a commonly underutilized tool in the fight against
shrink. Personalizing the various
data capture settings to your environment provides management with timely,
accurate, relevant, and most importantly actionable information to audit and
control the POS operations. It allows
for management to standardize and evaluate performance expectations. If requirements are not being met, a report
can be reviewed with the employee to decide on appropriate action to re-train,
re-assign, or terminate as needed. They
can also be used to identify top performers and goal achievements to promote
quality and productivity.
Those are some simple techniques to combat
the menace of shrink; however, today's world also provides a number of
technological advances designed to assist merchants with controlling and reducing
shrink. These innovations deliver a much
more substantial and measurable return on their investment, making their
purchase a no-brainer for savvy retailers.
Take for instance Datalogic's LaneHawk solution that helps eliminate the
bottom-of-the-basic loss all grocers abhor thinking about. Another cutting-edge solution called Hawkeye 20/20
Advanced Video Auditing and Reporting by Agilence is a real game changer. It offers an advanced managed service
combining video, pricing, and transaction data analysis, moving far beyond
current exception reporting capabilities; allowing retailers to not only
identify more instances of fraud, but also to identify other sources of shrink,
such as packaging, pricing, promotional, and operational problems, that are not
written to the transaction log (Tlog). These
common instances can only be discovered by integrating each line-item scan with
a corresponding frame of video and having a powerful query tool to root out the
causes of these losses. It's truly the
dawn of a new era in loss prevention.
Let's face it, every Grocer must apply all the best practices in their arsenal to fight shrink in their business. New weapons are available. In today's hyper-competitive landscape these technologies are enabling the progressive grocers to leverage the advantages offered and win the war. You should always ask yourself what more can I do and look to realize these same competitive advantages to grow your business. Consult with STCR's knowledgeable representatives. They can help you get the solutions and the services needed to integrate these proven methods into your business and you can be the winner!
