Several decades ago, the world’s first hard tags and electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems helped retailers begin to meaningfully combat shrink. But as bad actors became more sophisticated and retail operations became more complex, shrink events became harder to detect and deter — and almost impossible to quantify in terms of profit and loss.

But Smart Exit Solutions, the latest retail loss-prevention innovation from Sensormatic Solutions, are enabling retailers to quantify the impact of shrink for the first time and fight back against both rising shrink and organized retail crime.

In this article, we’ll explore how Smart Exit Solutions:

• Demystify shrink and make losses a measurable, predictable line item
• Turn data from across the retail ecosystem into actionable insights
• Make investigations faster and more efficient than ever

“Historically, retailers have relied on a beep at the door to know that a loss occurred,” said Jamie Kress, Director of RFID Sales, North America, at Sensormatic Solutions. “There’s value in that beep as a deterrent, even if it didn’t tell them what was stolen, or how many, or how much it was worth. But that beep isn’t data, and it isn’t actionable across the enterprise.”

“With Smart Exit Solutions, we’re still giving them the same deterrent they’ve always relied on, but we’re also delivering the data they need to find actionable loss events and quickly identify bad actors.”

Smart Exits accomplish this by fusing data from across the retail enterprise — electronic article surveillance, RFID, point of sale systems, video, and more — into a single intuitive dashboard powered by the Shrink Analyzer application.

“Think of it like the brain that connects and drives the body,” said Daniel Villegas, Market and Business Development Director, EMEA, at Sensormatic Solutions. “Smart Exits connect these disparate systems, bringing them together to form a cohesive ecosystem that functions as a single unit. It’s a way to simplify all the reporting they were getting from these systems into a single mechanism that enables them to be more agile, react more quickly, and take action more decisively.”

The rich data and intuitive reporting delivered by Smart Exits, Kress said, is already enabling retailers to investigate loss events, coordinate with law enforcement, and close cases faster than ever before.

“Using Smart Exit Solutions, retailers can pinpoint where and when a loss event occurred, what the stolen items were worth, and then tie that information to timestamped video surveillance that often provides clear evidence of the offender’s identity. Retailers can then turn over this evidence, with a clear chain of custody, to law enforcement in record time. Historically, this process often took up to 18 months, but now, retailers can do it in 4-6 weeks.”

One key to enabling this speed, Kress said, was ensuring maximum accuracy of sensors across the Smart Exit ecosystem. Any inaccuracies from an EAS system or other sensor suite have the potential to slow investigations down substantially, as loss prevention teams would have to sift through alerts that may or may not reflect real thefts. But by leveraging the most sophisticated and reliable sensor hardware available today, Smart Exits maximize accuracy, ensuring loss prevention teams can identify loss events quickly and avoid spending time chasing potential false positives.

Of course, investigations aren’t the only thing that Smart Exits have the potential to accelerate.

“Most retailers today have some form of EAS in place, along with data from a POS system, camera infrastructure, and more,” Villegas said. “Many have RFID enabled for inventory management purposes. When we launch a Smart Exit pilot, we can take these data sources and any learnings that already exist and merge them quickly. This enables us to get a pilot up and running in just a few weeks, with minimal friction and almost no downtime for stores and staff.”

Following a successful implementation of Smart Exit Solutions, retailers often see results quickly. Those results, Kress said, include:

• Decreased shrink
• Faster investigations and easier case management
• Measurable sales lift due to efficient replenishment after loss events

But there have also been some surprising — though not unwelcome — outcomes.

“Retailers have been able to use the data from Smart Exits and Shrink Analyzer in surprising ways,” he noted. “One early adopter found that there was a pattern of theft that occurred in certain departments at certain times. As a result, they were able to ensure those departments were fully staffed during those peaks in shrink.”

Other surprising results include retailers discovering the extent of the damage done by sweethearting.

“Every retailer knows sweethearting happens, and retailers often try to combat it, with mixed results, by deploying cameras in checkout areas,” Kress said. “But after implementing Smart Exits, a number of retailers have been truly shocked at how big their sweethearting problems really were — and how damaging it was to their bottom lines.”

Fortunately, Smart Exits enabled these retailers to take action and mitigate the sweethearting threat quickly.

“You’ve got the data. You’ve got the video. You know what left the store without being scanned through a POS system, and you’ve got all that information at your fingertips,” he stressed. “There’s no guesswork there. The evidence is clear, and that enables retailers to take decisive action pretty immediately.”

Ready to take the mystery out of shrink and fight back with deeper insights and more comprehensive evidence packages? Reach out today to start the conversation.