Using Your POS to Control Theft, Shrink at 11:33 AM

GRAPEVINE, Texas – Technology is helping retailers take on the four most common areas of shrink — employee theft, shoplifting, vendor theft and paperwork errors — through point-of-sale (POS) software solutions and scan data. These systems also help retailers control costs and track trends, all of which were explored during a NACStech workshop on Monday that featured:

• Jane Gabriel, retail solutions manager at The Pinnacle Corporation;
• Susan Flynn McLoughlin, senior systems analyst at WILCOHESS LLC (North Carolina); and
• Dale Williams, director of quality assurance and internal control, Flash Foods (Georgia).

The benefits of implementing a POS solution, according to Flynn, are that it helps control theft. For example, fuel integration and alerts keep staff aware of pump activity, detailed POS event logging allows for a more granular analysis of cashier activity, scanning eliminates pricing errors, and the company’s one cashier per till policy ensures each employee is accountable for his/her tray.

For identifying and controlling employee theft, WILCOHESS uses a “trend book” feature that captures key register information generated by the cashier during his/her shift. Over a period of time, store managers can follow the performance of cashiers and identify trends in key categories that may indicate a training deficiency or employee theft.

Flynn noted that the success of capturing this information for analyzing performance and trends is ensuring accuracy and consistency, as inaccurate figures will skew any shift or register analysis and hide a dishonest employee, or may lead a manager to fire an innocent employee.

At Flash Foods, implementing at POS solution has helped the retailer dramatically reduce gasoline theft (“drive-offs”). The company has reduced gasoline theft by 78 percent since 2006, a savings of almost $575,000 in just two years. The software allows Flash Foods to see a detailed report of each pump, the times of day theft occurred and how many times, including which sales associate was on duty at the time of theft. These patterns that emerge from the data allow Flash Foods to see a trend and be proactive at reducing theft rather than reactive.

Flash Foods’ “Rewards in a Flash” loyalty program also combats gasoline theft by allowing customers to fuel up and then pay, including those who pay in cash. If a customer drives off, whether intentionally or not, Flash Foods has that customer’s information through the loyalty card.

Article from Nacsonline.com