Sell more and lose less - with ECR Retail Loss

Professor Emmeline Taylor joins Colin Peacock to explore how retailers around the world are deploying live facial recognition and what it takes to get it right when it comes to reducing losses while maintaining privacy.They break the conversation into three areas.Firstly, organisational readiness: why deploying facial recognition in retail is not about flicking a switch, and why it can take years to align policies, training, data protection and governance across as many as twelve different principles.Secondly, the business case: one retailer reported a 20% reduction in shrink, but regulators are pushing back on some use cases and insisting the technology is proportionate to legitimate purposes such as violence reduction and in-store safety, not just financial ROI.Thirdly, sustainable deployment: how retailers can maintain public trust through transparency, clear signage, and holding the line on minimum standards.They also discuss watch list management, the risk of surveillance creep, the distinction between live and retrospective facial recognition, and why the parallels with early CCTV adoption suggest this technology will become the norm within a generation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professor Emmeline Taylor joins Colin Peacock to discuss the latest findings on forecourt crime rom ECR Retail Loss working group meetings.They explore why pay at pump is not the silver bullet for drive-offs and no means of payment, despite its appeal as a target-hardening measure.The conversation covers how one retailer combined ANPR technology with better signage and streamlined reporting to achieve a significant reduction in forecourt theft. But a growing problem is undermining ANPR: ghost plates. A recent report suggested one in 15 vehicles across England and Wales is now driving on false number plates. Emmeline and Colin discuss the governance risks for lone-working forecourt staff, the disparity in loss rates across retailers, and the value of law enforcement partnerships. They also consider how video analytics could help detect cloned plates in future, and why government action on ghost plates is needed before the problem becomes normalised. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sophie Wong joins Colin Peacock to talk about leaving corporate life at Coles to launch her own retail loss prevention consultancy, Positively Powered.She shares the good, the bad, and the ugly of going it alone: from the freedom to think creatively and work across different retail organisations, to the reality of building a business from scratch without a steady paycheck.Sophie and Colin discuss why loss is everyone's responsibility, why it belongs on the C-suite agenda, and why loss prevention teams cannot solve complex shrink problems without cross-functional support. Sophie also offers practical advice for anyone considering a similar move, covering financial planning, defining a unique selling proposition, and the importance of constantly learning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The scale of retail supply chain theft is hard to ignore. With some retailers reporting $200 million worth of freight on the road on any given day, even a small percentage of loss translates into significant financial damage. Yet many businesses still allocate minimal resources to tackling the problem.In this episode, Professor Emmeline Taylor draws on her research into freight crime and findings from a recent ECR Retail Loss working group to explore why this area of loss has been overlooked and what can be done about it.From the dramatic jump-up in thefts captured on video to the quieter threat of agency drivers infiltrating supply chains, the discussion covers a wide range of tactics used by offenders and the practical countermeasures available to retailers.The conversation also touches on GPS tracking, pallet recognition technology, tamper-proof packaging, and the importance of cross-functional collaboration between loss prevention, logistics, and law enforcement. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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 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.