Retailers are always searching for new ways to reduce retail losses such as lost sales because of empty shelves, losses at self-checkout, returns fraud and food waste.
Every year, store operations and loss prevention experts from over 300 different retail businesses from around the world participate in the meetings and research organised by ECR Retail Loss.
This podcast series brings you the latest insights from our research and best practice meetings.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Retailers are always searching for new ways to reduce retail losses such as lost sales because of empty shelves, losses at self-checkout, returns fraud and food waste.
Every year, store operations and loss prevention experts from over 300 different retail businesses from around the world participate in the meetings and research organised by ECR Retail Loss.
This podcast series brings you the latest insights from our research and best practice meetings.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Facial recognition is delivering serious results—one retailer reported a 25% drop in shrink—but it’s still on shaky ground.
Professor Emmeline Taylor and Colin Peacock return to explore the real-world complexities of deploying this technology, from shared watchlists and legal grey areas to misidentifications that can make headlines.
As more retailers turn to facial recognition, getting the human touch right is crucial: who gets notified, how they respond, and how trust is maintained.
With a code of practice now on the table, this is a must-listen for anyone working through their own policies for facial recognition.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Internal theft is responsible for a huge chunk of retail loss—yet only 2% of cases ever come to light.
Professor Emmeline Taylor joins Colin Peacock to discuss the rising complexity of staff dishonesty, from sweethearting and fake returns to collusion at self-checkouts and e-commerce touchpoints.
Drawing on new ECR research, she explores how smarter comms, not bigger budgets, could make the biggest difference.
Think nudges over finger-pointing—reminding colleagues of the risks, responsibilities and shared values.
If retailers can deliver even a small shift in behaviour the potential savings could be enormous.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What happens when someone orders five beers and a bag of crisps to arrive within 15 minutes but the store only has four beers?
Professor Daniel Corsten joins Colin Peacock on the podcast to dissect the economics and challenges of quick commerce. And why they so often don’t add up.
From soaring labour costs to out-of-stocks and substitutions, it’s a model that struggles to work in higher-wage markets.
Daniel shares fresh insights on where picking costs stack up, the hidden toll of substitutions, and the smart interventions that might make fast fulfilment more viable.
A timely reality check for retailers chasing speed and customer satisfaction.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cameras don’t solve on-shelf availability—but they support it.
Daniel Corsten joins Colin Peacock to discuss the latest ECR Retail Loss research and explains why shelf image technology is best seen as an enhancer, not a silver bullet.
Supported by case-studies, he explores how retailers are using robots, badges, and fixed cameras to complement—not replace—traditional ways to measure on shelf availability.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Criminologist Joe Clare shares practical lessons from ECR Retail Loss’s recent returns fraud research, revealing how a small group of repeat offenders can drive the bulk of losses. Even though 14% of all customers admit to doing it.
Clothing dominates, but camping gear and electronics are also potential targets.
He discusses with Colin Peacock how profiling, policy changes, and strategic tagging can disrupt this pseudo-rental behaviour—without damaging the customer experience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Despite being the cheapest option for food redistribution, less than a quarter of major retailers donate surplus food to their store colleagues.
Colin Peacock and ECR Retail Loss’s expert food waste advisor Richard Thalemann explain how one retailer overcame fraud fears, tax headaches and tech hurdles to build a safe, scalable solution that’s a potential blueprint for others to follow.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Some retailers report up to a 25% shrink reduction when they use face recognition.
In this episode, Colin and Emmeline explore how stores across the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand are deploying biometric recognition—mostly for watchlist alerts—but also for access control and retrospective investigations.
They also tackle the legal, regulatory and ethical issues that retailers the world over are discussing with policymakers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Is pay-at-pump a quick fix or a false promise? How can retailers reduce drive-offs and maintain supplementary spending?
Professor Emmeline Taylor joins Colin Peacock to examine the evolving tactics retailers are using to fight forecourt losses.
From digital reporting platforms to the strategic use of ANPR, the episode sheds light on how tech, training, and smarter reporting are reshaping the future of forecourt security.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Michael Townsley to reflect on ECR Retail Loss’s first-ever meeting focused on benchmarking KPIs for e-commerce loss — an increasingly vital yet under-defined area of retail loss prevention.
Drawing on insights from six global retailers, they explore how different teams are measuring key metrics like acceptance rates, chargebacks, returns disputes, and fraud — often using different language to describe the same problems.
Their discussion also highlights the gap between malicious and non-malicious losses, and the importance of creating a unified framework for tracking both.
With the goal of building clear benchmarks for the industry, they highlight the need for deeper collaboration, better data, and more interventions to tackle e-commerce loss.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock and Professor Emmeline Taylor discuss the evolving role of security officers in retail.
And how training, integration, and investment can significantly enhance their impact - to reduce losses.
Drawing on insights from over 70 retailers and expert presentations, the discussion highlights the importance of moving beyond a more procurement-based view of hourly guarding towards one where security officers provide multiple benefits with clear KPI’s.
From customer service to crime deterrence, the pair conclude that the right training and support can transform the role of security officers into a central part of store safety and performance.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor to explore how retailers are evolving their Security Operations Centres (SOCs) into powerful hubs for crime prevention, safety, and store support.
Based on insights from a benchmark study of 29 retailers and a live case study, they discuss how SOCs are being used for everything from live incident response and evidence gathering to virtual store audits and lone-worker protection. They reflect on how SOCs can help reduce losses, support staff morale, and even improve relationships with local police forces.
As the technology capabilities explode and use cases multiply, they discuss how SOCs are becoming essential tools in creating safer, more efficient, and more resilient retail operations.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock and Professor Emmeline Taylor zoom in on the often-overlooked issue of cash loss in retail.
They reflect on how internal theft, counterfeit currency, and operational inefficiencies all contribute to losses, and how a mix of simple process changes and smarter, tech-driven solutions are helping retailers halve their cash losses in a matter of months.
From training and cultural change to intelligent detection and exception reporting, the session offers practical steps to better manage cash loss in today’s retail landscape.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Michael Townsley from Griffith University to focus on a case study: looking at one major e-commerce retailer’s journey to build a global digital loss prevention capability.
They reflect on how the smart framing of fraud as a “lost sale” helped engage multiple internal stakeholders, and how serious investment in data collection and analysis has driven impressive improvements — including a jump in order acceptance rates and millions in recovered revenue.
They also look at emerging risks like account takeovers, crypto payments, and AI-enabled scams, and how retailers must stay agile as bad actors evolve.
If improving digital loss prevention is in your remit, check out this week’s podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock is again joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor to discuss the free to download self-assessment tool included in her Fortress Stores report.
The tool helps a multi-functional team undertake a self assessment exercise for retailers to explore for their most at-risk stores their compliance to a series of 28 key questions across the seven dimensions of her strategy.
Emmeline explains how cross-departmental collaboration, shaped by conversations which emerge from this exercise can work towards a more consistent approach to risk mitigation in the most at risk stores.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock and Professor Emmeline Taylor catch up to discuss the latest innovations from global retailers in protecting high-risk and high-shrink products — without sacrificing the shopper experience.
From app-based access to locked cabinets, through to creative new tagging solutions and packaging redesigns, this episode looks at how retailers are trying to reduce theft while keeping products available and sales high.
Together they explore how retailers are balancing the addition of friction, in the form of product protection measures such as nets on meat, or smart cabinets, with the requirement to deliver a low friction shopper journey experience — summarising ideas shared by over 80 retailers worldwide.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor to explore how retailers are transforming store incident reporting through digital systems.
They discuss how the industry has now moved from paper based systems to digital reporting enabling more accurate, consistent, and actionable reporting of in-store incidents — from non-emergency incidents such as shoplifting or verbal abuse, through to the more serious incidents of physical violence.
They talk to how this data is being used to engage C-suite leaders, connect with police, and support store associates.
From integrating CCTV and Car Licence plates (ANPR/LPR systems, to nudging users to classify incidents correctly, the introduction of integrated digital incident reporting is transforming retailers' capability to record more incidents, more accurately, more completely, faster and at less cost.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Engaging store leaders and associates in the fight against food waste is one of the key pillars of a successful strategy to reducing food waste in the store.
This week Colin Peacock is joined by Richard Thaleman to summarise best practice from over 80 retailers in how they ensure that staff are 100% 'on side' when it comes to trying new ways to reduce food waste.
And then sticking with them.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this week's episode Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Daniel Corsten to discuss managing substitutions for online orders picked from store.
They explore best practice in how retailers handle out-of-stock items, the costs involved, and the benefits of personalised substitution strategies.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Bakery, whether it is bought in, or produced in the store is consistently an area of high loss and waste, often accounting for up to 40% of all the surplus food in any one supermarket.
This week Colin Peacock is joined by Richard Thaleman to discuss insights on new bakery planning systems and how to deal with false scans at self-checkout.
They explore how innovative tools are reducing bakery waste and how retailers are balancing loss prevention with customer convenience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week Colin Peacock is joined by Richard Thaleman to discuss the benefits of selling bananas by item instead of by weight.
They look at how selling by weight adds friction and risk, and how switching to per-item pricing helped one retailer to significantly reduce losses.
When bananas can account for up to 60% of the losses of loose products, there is a big incentive to to change the way they're sold.
Find out more in this week's podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.