Top 3 Reasons Why ORC may be Smaller Fish in the Shrink Sea
What is ORC?
The National Retail Federation (NRF) defines Organized Retail Crime (ORC) as,
"theft/fraudulent activity conducted with the intent to convert illegally
obtained merchandise, cargo, cash, or cash equivalent into financial gain (no
personal use), typically through online or offline sales. Organized retail crime
typically involves a criminal enterprise that organizes large-scale thefts from
a number of retail stores and employs a fencing operation to sell the
illegally-obtained goods for financial gain."
ORC: The Smaller Fish in the Shrink Sea?
Shrink rates can be lowered by either decreasing the amount of inventory
shortage or by increasing sales, The Calibration Group's whitepaper, "SOH: The
Retail Problem That's 7 Times Greater than ORC" reveals. Accordingly, ORC may no
longer be considered the biggest threat to retailers' bottom lines from a Loss
Prevention perspective. The Top 3 reasons to consider when pondering this
comparison:
1. ORC costs North American retailers a staggering $34.67 billion a
year, but the $252.9 billion stock-on-hand (SOH) issue overshadows ORC
by more than 7:1. |
2. If North American retailers eliminated ORC entirely, profit earned
from the $34.67 billion in merchandise now available for sale would be
$1.04 billion.* |
3. If North American retailers resolved their SOH issues and recouped
the lost sales, the profit earned from the $252.9 billion would be
nearly $7.6 billion.* |
* Calculations based on 3% net profit margins
The Four-Letter Solution
An
inventory visibility system (IVS) with RFID technology offers retailers clear
insight into their inventory at any given point in time. RFID, along with a
comprehensive, yet simple software application, has now become the solution that
can easily be embedded into any retail framework. An IVS system with RFID
provides store personnel with key inventory management data, such as how many
items are in back stock and on the sales floor, which in turn allows the staff
to manage inventory more "real-time" by making necessary adjustments.
This technology also provides the ability to take a full inventory of the store
within minutes as opposed to hours. Loss Prevention professionals can now
enhance profitability more effectively by increasing sales while simultaneously
lowering the shrink rate.