Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2016 - 34

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Loss prevention success for Sears

"I still talk to people who are going to seven or eight

The power of analytics was illuminated in a
different sources to pull together one report. That's our
Sears Canada case study by Don Berezowski,
Divisional Vice President, Loss Prevention big push-to try and integrate all the data from all these
& Safety, and Matthew Robertson, Corporate different locations to put it in one platform just to make
Manager, Loss Prevention - Inventory & In- people's lives a bit easier, and not have to spend hours
vestigations and Retail Organized Crime.
pulling together reports from multiple areas"
"We needed to reduce operational cost, and
- CORY ADAMS, Sysrepublic
of course the end all and be all is the reduction of the shrink,"
Berezowski said, explaining the retailer's impetus two years they look like and here's what they're buying.'"
ago to undertake a sweeping overhaul of its LP strategy.
He added: "The goal with all of our cases,
"We wanted to take our initiatives to the next level. And whether its organized retail crime or an interreally at the end of the day, it was technology that was going nal investigation, is to use the analytics to a
to get us to the next level. We wanted a digital outlook."
point where it's always a sure thing."
The initiative, led by Robertson, started with a couple of core
The results to date? Last year alone, Berezowactivities, dubbed ORCA (Organized Retail Crime Analytics) ski said, the reduction in shrink grew Sears
and BOLO (Be On the Look Out), a national alert database.
Canada's bottom line by $5.2 million.
The ORCA component began with compiling POS data,
Loss prevention is not a glamorous departlooking for trends and adapting the reports daily with an ever- ment in any retail organization. It can also at
expanding list of variables.
times be a thankless job, protecting the assets
Said Robertson: "When it relates to gift cards or refund of a business. But, if there was one clear mesfraud-and refund fraud is huge for everyone in this room - sage that came out of RCC's 2016 Loss Prevenoftentimes the refund fraud gets put on a gift card. Because tion Conference, it's that in an environment of
we're actioning these in almost real-time, we have the ability escalating cyber-criminal activity, increased
to freeze the gift card."
theft, fraud, and mounting pressure being
He added: "In 2015 we doubled our cases from the previous placed on profit margins, the role and responyear, and we're on track to double yet again in 2016 in terms of sibility of today's loss prevention professional
closing these cases. Where some real benefits happen is pre- is critical in ensuring the continued health
dicting organized retail crime."
and growth of retailers' bottom lines.
For example, he said they can analyze data in such a way that a
fraudster can come in and do a transaction at one store, go down For more information from our valuable
the road to another store, and so on to a third. "We can notify the partners on Loss Prevention solutions, visit
fourth store before the fraud is even attempted and say, 'Look, RCCLPConference.ca. And for the full RCC
there's a credit card that's traveling between stores. Here's what event listing, visit RetailCouncil.org/events

34 |

CANADIAN RETAILER | The Loss Prevention Issue

http://www.RCCLPConference.ca http://www.RetailCouncil.org/events

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2016