BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - January 9, 2008) - Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS),
surveyed 680 retail enterprises in October 2007 and found that on an
average, 60% of retailers surveyed recorded year-over-year shrink or
write-off of at least 1.75% of their total inventory (as a percent of
sales), further compounding existing theft and fraud-related complexities
in retail.
Another alarming trend is that almost a third of retailers (30%) have
reported between 2% to 6% invalid transactions (unauthorized and fraudulent
customer transactions as a percentage of total transactions). This
indicates that retailers may be faced with high transaction fraud incidence
due to organized retail crime, data loss, and dishonest employees.
Aberdeen data shows that low levels of loss prevention training coupled
with the incidence of internal theft generate extreme pressure for
individual field locations. "Effective loss prevention is hampered by high
number of internal cases related to merchandise, cash-related, and
transaction fraud committed by employees," said Sahir Anand, Retail analyst
and chief author of the report "Real-Time Loss Prevention: Changing the
Game in Fraud."
"Eighty percent of internal theft incidents go un-noticed or un-resolved
adding to daily shrink in stores. Moreover, retailers also tackle other
problems propagated by internal theft such as legal costs to settle loss
prevention cases, labor turnover, and hidden costs related to lost sales
opportunity, negative impact on customer service, and low employee morale,"
says Anand. Despite the challenges, Aberdeen data also indicates that the
road to recovery is attainable if a centralized approach to data,
compliance, and training is pursued by retailers. Cash asset protection,
real-time video and transaction data intelligence, and access control are
some of the pillars that enable retailers across different sub-segments to
build an agile and responsive loss prevention environment.
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: Micros Retail and IntelliVid, and supported by RILA
and LP Magazine.
To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4270.
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
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© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Contact Information: Media Contact:
Sahir Anand
Retail Analyst
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5271
Sahir.Anand@aberdeen.com