The Evolution of “Saving the Sale” and What It Means Today | Part 3 of 3

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So far in this three-part series on how to “Save the Sale”, I have covered:

In this third and final part to this “Save the Sale” series, the discussion will slightly shift toward the challenges retailers experience when attempting to digitize their business model to increase sales by enhancing their customers’ experiences.

Seek First to Understand (the Challenges)

In a recent article entitled, The Digitalized Retail Store – a Conversion Driver or a Giant Headache?, author Tom Vieweger highlights the challenges retailers face when digitizing their operations, as well as the steps retailers must take to successfully accomplish this relevant transition. Vieweger states retailers must first lay a foundation, meaning whatever “digital touch points” a retailer utilizes (i.e., displays, in-store kiosks or smart mirrors), they can only drive conversion if the promoted products are actually available.

 

To accomplish the next step laid out by Vieweger, retailers must “play, measure, learn & adjust,” meaning they need to learn how customers react to offering new services so they can begin innovating with customers, as opposed to for customers. The third and final step Vieweger lays out for retailers looking to successfully digitize is to stay flexible by removing internal barriers while creating new, agile approaches that can be adjusted as technology changes.

The bottom line? Accurate, real-time stock information is essential for any organization launching into this new world of retail. Launching new digital initiatives that inspire customers to purchase more items, only to be disappointed when the item is not in stock, will only serve to damage a retailer’s brand and alienate customers. RFID and EPCIS standards are the keys to success in this arena, as RFID enables a high stock accuracy while EPCIS is a standardized protocol to exchange information on RFID events.

Secure Self/Mobile Checkout: Lessons from US & UK Retailers

At the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s (RILA) Asset Protection Conference that will be held April 29 – May 2, 2018 in Orlando, Fl., retailers and academia team up to present an education session entitled, Teaming Up to Secure Self/Mobile Checkout: Lessons from US & UK Retailers. In light of the fact that self-reporting by retailers, video, and other evidence indicates current mobile checkout and self-checkout business models may be creating significant losses and inventory distortions, Read Hayes of the University of Florida & the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC), and Adrian Beck of the Department of Criminology, University of Leicester, teamed up with retailers to produce this engaging, value-packed session that will address the technologies needed to effectively play in the new retail landscape.

Attendees will hear from these respected academics who will share their latest research findings on the nature and extent of the risk posed by self-scan systems, together with retailers who are utilizing this technology in their businesses. If you have not already registered to attend this conference, you may do so by clicking here. This is a session you will not want to miss!

 

The Meeting You Need at the Time You Need it
Nedap will be displaying their latest RFID technology, including RFID-based EAS, at this year’s RILA Conference April 29 – May 2, 2018 in Orlando, Fl This is the perfect opportunity for you to stop by Booth 626 to experience firsthand how RFID provides the technological foundation needed to successfully launch a self-checkout or mobile pay platform while still protecting your merchandise.

If you would prefer to schedule a meeting with us at the RILA Conference, you may do so by clicking here.

The Evolution of “Saving the Sale” and What It Means Today | Part 2 of 3

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I recently started a series on the evolution of the phrase “Save the Sale” and what it means today.  Part One discussed the definition of “saving the sale” and how not saving the sale impacts inventory and shrink.  Part two discusses the importance of having merchandise available and how mobile payment is becoming the standard to keep impatient customers fulfilled in this omnichannel world.

“Saving the Sale” is means merchandise need to be available of course and retailers must make it a seamless checkout experience.  Here’s additional detail on “saving the sale” solutions:

Merchandise Simply Available is Saving the Sale
Nedap offers practical solutions to typical challenges retailers face worldwide. Our mission is to make it simple for retailers to always have the right products available. We help you to make sure your customers feel they are the entire focus of your attention – that they can find whatever they want, wherever and whenever they want it – because your products are in stock and on the right shelf. Nedap’s solutions also help ensure your store teams spend less time looking for missing products and spend more time serving your customers.

Saving the Sale with Seamless Mobile Checkouts
The way consumers shop has changed dramatically over the past decade. The ‘traditional’ way of shopping; entering a physical store, choosing items and then lining up to pay at the checkout has been completely revolutionized. An increasing number of retailers are offering alternatives to the traditional point-of-sale by offering the possibility for their customers to make payment on their personal mobile devices. However, these ‘seamless checkout experiences’ tend to conflict with traditional EAS solutions. Nedap showcases how mobile payments can be combined with RFID-based EAS systems to effectively prevent merchandise from being stolen throughout the mobile pay process.

Seamless and cost-efficient security with RFID tags makes this solution sustainable. Additionally, Nedap’s solutions integrate nicely with existing systems, and the ability to use existing barcodes makes it even easier to adopt.

As digital sales continue to rise, it’s never been more important for retailers to optimize their checkouts in stores.

Use In-Store and Cloud-Based Technology to Save the Sale

RFID-based EAS
The role of electronic article surveillance antennas at the entrances and exits of stores have also changed. Traditional EAS systems alarm on active tags leaving stores, but intelligent article surveillance systems are capable of not only recognizing specific items. They can also detect and trigger alarms for several different scenarios. These systems are more advanced than ever before. Within this modern retail environment, Nedap distinguishes different levels of intelligent article surveillance to meet the needs of each retailer, all with one thing in mind: We make it simple for retailers to always have the right products available.

!D Cloud
Making sure that a product in the right size and the right color is available for your customers is crucial these days. However, merchandise availability should not result in overstocked stores and the associated high capital cost. That is why having accurate stock information at all times is key. RFID technology makes it possible to automate in-store stock management – resulting in optimal merchandise availability for customers and an in-store stock accuracy of over 98%.

To enable a fast RFID deployment and optimum scalability, Nedap has designed !D Cloud. !D Cloud is a cloud-hosted software suite that functions as a scalable integration layer between the existing ERP system and RFID readers. There is no need to replace existing IT infrastructures, add any new in-store infrastructure, or change the current ERP system.

Stay tuned for the conclusion to the series next week.

The Evolution of “Saving the Sale” and What It Means Today | Part 1 of 3

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Reflecting upon recent conversations I’ve had with Loss Prevention (LP) leaders, I have noticed an interesting shift in the way inventory shortage, or shrinkage, is being talked about. Over the many years I have been in the retail loss prevention industry, I have seen the focus of loss prevention leaders volley from one thing to the next. Robberies, employee theft, shoplifting and Organized Retail Crime (ORC) are still some of the most commonly talked about LP issues. However, these discussions are no longer solely focused on how these issues impact shrinkage. Most recently, these discussions focus on how these issues impact sales.  After all, retailers cannot sell off empty shelves.

The phrase “Save the Sale” started to surface in 2009, but it has recently gained ever more momentum.  Loss Prevention executives from retailers of all kinds are being charged with “Saving the Sale” in all areas of their focus.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing a series on how Saving the Sale affects you and how you can help your organizations “Save the Sale.”  Here’s the first two critical points to saving the sale:

Save the Sale Means Real-Time Access to Inventory
Retailers like Macy’s and The Children’s Place are still hot on ‘omnichannel retail,’ which is the term used to describe how retailers connect online and offline shopping behaviors. In a recent article in Forbes Magazine, Macy’s Executive Chairman, Terry Lundgren, stated that Macy’s is continuing to see serious growth in the area of “buy online, pick up in store” (BOPUS). He believes “physical stores are not going away,” and that, “customers will always want the option of coming into the store to try on jeans instead of buying three different sizes online.”

In this same article, Jane Elfers, CEO of The Children’s Place, stated her organization is also making a “big move towards digital and employing a lot of the omnichannel use cases like BOPUS and ‘Save the Sale.’” The article goes on to acknowledge that ‘Save the Sale’ requires store associates to have the ability to access real-time inventory across the network of stores, and that this inventory access enables store associates to keep customers from walking away from a purchase by finding their desired item online or at another store location with ease.

Failing to Save the Sale Increases Shrink

People rarely consider that sales directly impacts reported shrinkage percentages. The most successful loss prevention executives understand that when sales are up, shrinkage often decreases. Conversely, when sales are soft, the reported shrinkage percentage often increases. This is because shrinkage is typically reported as a percent-to-sales. This is calculated by dividing the total dollar amount of inventory shortage by the total sales. For example, if a retailer that does $3 million/year in sales takes inventory and determines $100,000 of inventory is unaccounted for, they simply divide $100,000 by the $3,000,000 and report a 3.33% shrinkage rate.

This means that if the inventory shortage of $100,000 stays the same, but sales increase to $3.2 million/year, their reported shrinkage rate decreases 20 basis points to 3.13. Conversely, if sales decrease to $2.8 million, their reported shrinkage rate would increase by 24 basis points to 3.57%. This is partly why retail’s classic saying – “Sales cures all ills” – has stood the test of time.

Stay tuned for the next in the series, “Seamlessly Saving the Sale”…

The Consumer Push for Mobile Pay Checkouts

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“What’s a Cashier?”

Checkouts haven’t changed since the beginning of retail. Sure, there are different models of the checkout, such as customer-unload designs, cashier unload designs, and even self-checkouts. But all of these types of checkouts have one thing in common: Cashiers.

With the Mobile revolution and the continued development of RFID technology, checkouts as we know them will soon be a thing of the past. This is not just a sci-fi vision into some impossible future. This is our new reality. Some say that within the next 10-20 years, children will be asking, “What’s a cashier?”

Winners Always Want the Ball

Some retailers will wait on the sidelines as their more in-tune-with-reality competitors pass them by in this new world. Unfortunately for them, they may never recover. In his recent blog, The Missing Piece in the Mobile Payment Puzzle and How RFID Completes It, RFID expert Hilbert Dijkstra lays out not only the benefits of mPOS, but also how retailers can protect their merchandise in this new, fresh and exciting retail environment.

The new world of mPOS still has unclaimed land, meaning there are still creative ways to deploy it. This is demonstrated in our whitepaper, How to Prevent High Shrinkage Levels When Introducing Mobile Checkouts in Retail Store. As stated in the whitepaper, Apple stores employ a unique version of mPOS. Any Apple employee walking the sales floor carries an iPad that allows them to ring up customers where they stand, thereby eliminating lines that traditional checkouts still contend with. This system of ringing sales may work well for Apple, but other retailers are experimenting with an even more unique way to use mPOS: one that involves RFID.

Leveraging Labor

There are many forward-thinking retailers today who understand the importance of being on the leading edge. Those first to adapt to the consumers’ push for mPOS will reap the rewards that come with building strong brand loyalty. But other benefits, such as labor reallocation or reduction, can be realized with mPOS.

mPOS retail mobile checkout

Imagine a customer walking into an apparel store. She sees a handbag she wants and simply scans the item using her smartphone, then exits the store. Far-fetched? Not at all. Some retailers are already doing this, while others are still wondering when the right time is to start their RFID journey. But one thing is for sure. Customers will flock to those utilizing this RFID technology.

Omnichannel Bliss

The use of RFID with mPOS is not the only benefit to retailers. Those in the omnichannel space also need RFID to solve their customer service woes. To successfully implement omnichannel strategies like click&collect or ship from store an accurate stock is a must have. When items that are ordered for instore pick up or to be send from the store are not  the apologies that ensue does little to help the brand damage that takes place each time this type of incident occurs. To read more on why RFID is the true omni channel enabler, please read more here.

With the introduction of mPOS to the market, omnichannel has come full circle. Now, when customers arrive to pick up the items they already paid for online, they can simply arrive at the store, select their purchased item, scan it out and leave. No lines. No hassle. No employees needed.

This is an interesting time in the world of retail, and consumers are in the stands patiently waiting to cheer for and support the retail winners who want the ball. Who will that be?

About Nedap

Nedap’s retail loss prevention products include electronic article surveillance, RF EAS systems, RFID EAS systems, Customer Counting and Retail Store Access Control systems.  Nedap’s retail solutions are based on intelligent identification and registration of people, animals and objects, or on innovative, ‘green’ electronic controls and power supplies. Innovation is driven by clients’ operations: systems are developed and adapted to optimize clients’ production and information processes.

Nedap brings 40 years of global experience, market expertise and close cooperation with leading retailers. Everything Nedap Retail does is driven by their mission to make it simple for retailers to always have the right products available. To achieve this, Nedap Retail offers industry-leading solutions for their customers’ diverse needs in loss prevention and stock management. For more information, visit Nedap Retail’s website: www.nedapretail-americas.com.

Nedap-Sponsored Giveaways at NRF Protect: An RFID-enabled Giveaway You Won’t Want to Miss

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Wakefield, MA, June 5, 2017 – Nedap Retail has partnered with several premier distributors of Nedap’s EAS/RFID-capable asset protection systems to create an unprecedented giveaway opportunity at this year’s NRF PROTECT conference June 25 – 28, 2017 in Washington DC.

Attendees will receive an RFID-enabled Nedap POWER Card inside the registration bag.

Looks like this:

Nedap NRF-Protect-Orange-Wave

Visit the below booths to see if your RFID card triggers the Nedap !D Top indicating you’re a winner!

  • BSI: booth 201 – Mystery Prizes any retailer would love
  • CONTROLTEK: booth 129 – Mystery Bags of Retailer Goodies
  • NuTech National: booth 423 – Amazon Echo Dots
  • Scarsdale: booth 941 – TVs & Drones

Don’t miss this opportunity to win any of these great prizes by simply stopping by each of Nedap’s premier distributors. The more Nedap distributors visited, the greater the chances of winning.

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Nedap is a manufacturer of intelligent technological solutions for relevant themes. Sufficient food for a growing population, clean drinking water throughout the world and smart networks for sustainable energy are just a couple of examples of themes Nedap is working on. It has a continual focus on technology that matters. Nedap was established in 1929, has been listed on the stock exchange since 1947 and, with more than 750 employees, Nedap is active around the world. Nedap helps global retailers permanently prevent losses, optimize stock levels and simplify the multi-store retail management.

Top 3 Reasons to Avoid RFID, and Why You Still Need It.

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RFID can be a scary acronym for retailers and supply chain operations. For years, it has carried these top three stigmas:

  • The Range of an RFID signal is too short
  • Liquids and metals interfere with RFID signals
  • RFID technology is costly

Taking a look at each of these objections individually will help readers reach an understanding of why RFID solutions has become a must-have in the retail industry, as well as other industries in which inventory accuracy maximization and inventory loss minimization are essential. Consider the stigma that the range of RFID signals is too short. This may be true in some industries, but it certainly is not true when it comes to inventory management and tracking within retail and supply chain operations. Using RFID to manage and track inventory is crucial when one considers any attempt to make a mark in the omnichannel space. In fact, Bill Connell, senior vice president of logistics and operations for Macy’s, stated during a panel discussion at the RFID in Retail and Apparel 2016, that “omnichannel was critical to success in the current retail market. Connell went on to state, “RFID is essential to omnichannel execution. Therefore, RFID is essential to retailing.” Regardless of RFID range, it is clear the current technology suits retail and supply chain industries well.

RFID labels for food Nedap

The second stigma that may be causing some companies from diving in to RFID technology has to do with liquids and metals. Albeit true that these two things can cause interference, we have found once again that solutions are in place to minimize interference by liquids and metals, rendering this a non-critical concern. Placement of RFID readers, such as Nedap’s !D Top, which is an overhead reader that replaces traditional pedestals, helps to overcome interference, making it the industry’s leading choice for RFID/EAS solutions. And not only is this technology well-suited in general merchandise and apparel retail segments, but it is also viable in the food sector.

And finally, the oldest and most popular falsehood about RFID: cost. For decades, RFID technology has carried this stigma, and until recently, it may have been true. But like all technology, the cost of RFID has drastically declined. Retailers may also be surprised to learn that Nedap’s RFID/EAS solutions are futureproof, meaning they can be used strictly as EAS systems today, and as RFID systems in the future without having to replace any hardware. This helps to further leverage the cost of RFID technology.

Retail store entrance RFID technology Nedap

Now that the top three obstacles to RFID technology have been addressed, it is time to discuss the benefits. The retail and supply chain landscape has changed significantly over the last couple of years, and changes are still coming. The number of people who order items online and pick them up at store locations continues to increase. What happens when customers order online, only to find the item is not at the store location at the time of their scheduled pick-up? The answer to that is easy: brand damage. Building trust within the customer base takes time, but it takes even longer to earn trust back once it has been lost. This is at the heart of experts’ claims that RFID technology is paramount for successfully competing in the omnichannel space. Knowing merchandise levels in real time is essential in order to deliver customer satisfaction throughout the shopping experience. And when one considers that a store employee, when using RFID, can take a full and accurate store inventory within minutes, it becomes clear why RFID technology is a must-have.

About Nedap Retail

Nedap brings 40 years of global experience, market expertise and close cooperation with leading retailers. Everything we do is driven by our mission to make it simple for retailers to always have the right products available. To achieve this, we offer industry-leading solutions for our customers’ diverse needs in loss prevention and stock management. For more information, visit www.nedap-retail.com.

Citations:

http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/retail/quote_connell

Nedap Sponsors D&D Live at NRF Retail’s Big Show

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Tune in to Join Nedap Retail for the D&D LIVE Event!

Nedap continues their support of the D&D Daily by sponsoring the LIVE broadcast featuring retail leaders addressing today’s hot topics at the NRF Retail’s Big Show January 15 -17, 2017 in NYC.

Tune in to watch us LIVE!  Click this link for LIVE viewing:
www.d-daily.net/live-in-nyc 

With more than 40 years of global experience, Nedap’s intelligent article surveillance solutions bridge the gap between high-performance loss prevention and a pleasant customer experience with smart features such as metal detectors, dashboarding, customer counting and much more.Take a look at last year’s LPNN Quick Take with Patrick O’Leary and Wouter Ubbels of Nedap Retail discussing its innovative product line and their support of the D&D Daily’s ORC Resource Center.

D&D Daily Live Broadcast by Nedap

Watch The D&D Daily LIVE in NYC 2017 Here.

Nedap Retail is the proud sponsor of the D&D Daily Reception and Dinner at the NRF Protect Retail’s Big Show. Keynote speaker, NYPD Commissioner “Jimmy” O’Neill, will speak during the reception and will be available for pictures with attending LP teams and vendors. In partnership with the NRF, a senior LP executive will be awarded The Daily’s LP Leadership Award that evening. For more information, click here.

NRF Retail Dinner
 

To learn more about Nedap’s smart loss prevention solutions, or to schedule a free consultation, visit:nedapretail-americas.com.

About Nedap Retail

Nedap’s retail loss prevention products include electronic article surveillance, RF EAS systems, RFID EAS systems, Customer Counting and Retail Store Access Control systems.  Nedap’s retail solutions are based on intelligent identification and registration of people, animals and objects, or on innovative, ‘green’ electronic controls and power supplies. Innovation is driven by clients’ operations: systems are developed and adapted to optimize clients’ production and information processes.

Nedap brings 40 years of global experience, market expertise and close cooperation with leading retailers. Everything Nedap Retail does is driven by their mission to make it simple for retailers to always have the right products available. To achieve this, Nedap Retail offers industry-leading solutions for their customers’ diverse needs in loss prevention and stock management. For more information, visit Nedap Retail’s website: www.nedapretail-americas.com.

Topics: RFID Retail Analytics loss prevention re

Retail’s Pursuit of Product Knowledge

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The Problem

Ask any retail executive to list their top 5 pet peeves, and a lack of product knowledge within their employee base will undoubtedly make the list. Employees with little product knowledge is one of the most sales-reducing dilemmas in all of retail.

According to research, retail sales associates with strong product knowledge sell 87 percent more than peers without out. And although there are a myriad of categories that fall within product knowledge, such as knowledge about the brand, shelf life, product performance, and level of assembly difficulty, a leading problem that falls under the product knowledge dilemma is simply whether or not the employee knows if a particular item is in stock.

Stock-on-Hand issues are an astonishing problem for retailers. In fact, Stock On Hand (SOH) issues are responsible for $1.1 Trillion in lost sales annually, according to a recent study by The IHL Group. But what is most fascinating about the SOH problem identified in the study is that the retailers identified by customers as being out of stock on a particular item may actually not be out of stock at all! How could this be? There are many reasons for this, but they all boil down to a lack of product knowledge.

In a 2016 whitepaper published by the Calibration Group, LLC, entitled, Stock-on-Hand: The Retail Problem That’s 7 Times Greater Than ORC, this dilemma was explained:

“The truth of the matter is that it really doesn’t matter whether or not a retailer is truly out-of-stock. What matters is whether or not the consumer experiences that the retailer is out-of-stock. For example, if a customer comes into a store to buy a specific brand of headphones but finds the rack empty, then she has concluded the store is out-of-stock and leaves empty-handed. However, the store may have several sets of that exact brand of headphones on a special display elsewhere in the store. In this example, the store’s management team would report they were in-stock on this particular set of headphones, and they’d be right. Conversely, the consumer would report the store is out-of-stock on this particular set of headphones, and based upon her perspective, she too, would be right.”

With the magnitude of costs brought by this globally persistent dilemma, retail executives, including Loss Prevention executives, are working hard to identify the proper remedy. Imagine a world where employees had easy access to information regarding not only how many of a particular item is in the store, but precisely where it is located. This would prevent the situation described above and would increase sales and customer loyalty.

The Solution

Not too long ago, the acronym, “RFID” was a word that fostered thoughts of high-dollar technology and unknown technological challenges. But that has all changed in recent years. What RFID brings to the retail space is a competitive edge to those who embrace it. Now that this technology is affordable, retailers are using it to finally gain traction on the product knowledge and Stock-on-Hand issues. Just a few years ago, the idea of an Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) system that prevents theft, while simultaneously helping retailers know the exact quantity of SKUs in any given store within a moment’s notice, was a pie-in-the-sky dream. But with technological advancements and a thirst for perfecting inventory management solutions, Nedap Retail has created this solution that is causing a paradigm shift throughout the world of retail. For those retailers using Nedap Retail’s intelligent, future-proof products, customer satisfaction isn’t the only thing that has improved. Clients of Nedap Retail are seeing sales increase as well.

What Nedap Retail brings to the industry is more than just the standard EAS system offered by their competitors. Nedap Retail understands the breadth and complexity of retail and, therefore, has successfully designed and implemented solutions that address multiple challenges within a single solution. Nedap Retail’s EAS systems do not just prevent shoplifting. When a retailer chooses to activate the RFID technology that is encapsulated within the EAS system, they immediately enjoy the spoils of an inventory management system that improves ordering, significantly reduces labor expenses attributed to counting inventory, and increases sales as employees instantly know exact item quantities and locations.

Future-Proof Loss Prevention

Nedap Retail understands that some organizations are not yet equipped to launch a full RFID inventory management system. That is why Nedap’s products are future-proof. This means retailers who select Nedap Retail’s products can simply use the system in an EAS-only capacity until the retail organization chooses to expand into the use of RFID inventory management. Future-proofing is the best option for retailers looking for an efficient, results-oriented EAS system because they won’t have to replace any equipment should they decide to enter the RFID space.

About Nedap Retail

Nedap’s retail loss prevention products include electronic article surveillance, RF EAS systems, RFID EAS systems, Customer Counting and Retail Store Access Control systems.  Nedap’s retail solutions are based on intelligent identification and registration of people, animals and objects, or on innovative, ‘green’ electronic controls and power supplies. Innovation is driven by clients’ operations: systems are developed and adapted to optimize clients’ production and information processes.

Nedap brings 40 years of global experience, market expertise and close cooperation with leading retailers. Everything Nedap Retail does is driven by their mission to make it simple for retailers to always have the right products available. To achieve this, Nedap Retail offers industry-leading solutions for their customers’ diverse needs in loss prevention and stock management. For more information, visit Nedap Retail’s website: www.nedapretail-americas.com.

Check out Nedap Retail’s client Case Study with DSW Shoe Warehouse.

6 Most Common CFO Objections

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Seasoned Loss Prevention executives know that when attempting to acquire funding for a new LP initiative or solution, they must be prepared to answer some tough questions and possible objections from their CFO, as well as other senior executives.  A common best practice to prepare for these objections is to consult others within the company who have had experience going through this same capital request or budgetary process.  Often times coworkers can share the objections or tough questions that were previously asked of them.  LP professionals can use that knowledge and anticipate other similar scenarios, then practice viable responses.

What if an LP professional does not have someone to consult? 

Here is an opportunity to review some common questions and objections LP executives may encounter when asking for budget allocations or capital for a new or upgraded LP initiative. For illustration purposes, we’ll use the installation of Nedap’s EAS system with RFID capability as the LP initiative being proposed.

 CFO Question: What are the operating costs?

 LP Executive Answer: “Rather than continuing down the path of standard EAS, Nedap’s system is much more intelligent.  It will allow us to use the EAS system as more than just a deterrent to theft, as it provides Retail Analytics.  However, any slight increase in costs when compared to our current LP solution will be more than covered by the increase in sales we will realize due to having product on the shelf as a result of the reduction of theft, as well as the added benefits of RFID technology.  Therefore, this LP solution is well-suited to ensure we reach our break-even point within the first 10 months of the fiscal year.”

CFO Objection: We have other priorities right now. Maybe next year!

 LP Executive Answer: “We understand that one of the biggest challenges of any senior executive is how to justify spending capital on an LP solution, especially when shrink has improved over prior years.  However, it is important to note this LP solution doesn’t only reduce shrink.  It also reduces labor, provides crucial insight into what is being stolen so we can ensure proper replenishment immediately, and provides a wealth of other analytics that can be used by operations, marketing, and Loss Prevention.  Since all of these areas are priorities for us, it is imperative to integrate this LP solution.  By reducing theft, we will decrease turnover, increase average transaction size, and increase same store sales over last year.  With this improved in-stock position, customer satisfaction will undoubtedly improve.”

 Ever heard these common objections?

  • I don’t want to burden the store employees. The have enough to do!
  • This LP solution will NOT improve sales.
  • That sounds like a huge operation! We don’t have the capacity for that right now!
  • This LP solution requires additional hardware and capital expenditures.

For the answers to the above objections and more ways to win over your CFO, click here to download, “Winning Over the CFO – A Practical Guide for Loss Prevention Executives” by Nedap Retail.