Groups team up to fight organized retail crime
Law enforcement officials, local retailers and city prosecutors are joining forces to fight Organized Retail Crime. They have launched the “We Watch, We Prosecute” campaign this week to combat the crimes that cost retailers and citizen in Pima County, Arizona, more than $5.9M according to the group.
The program aims to do this by educating retailers, consumers, and suspects. The group wants the suspects to hear the warning message “If you rip off a store, you will go to jail.” Another strategy is proposed legislation that would require anybody convicted of misdemeanor shoplifting or retail theft to be finger printed. Prosecutors say this would help make a stronger case to charge these suspects with felonies. [Source: Tucson News Now]
Woman wanted for felony shoplifting, has five prior theft convictions
A Columbus woman who has five prior theft convictions in three counties, is wanted on a felony shoplifting charge in Platte County. Columbus PD stated in an affidavit that 24-year-old Jasmine Taylor and another woman were reportedly seen leaving a store in Columbus with un-purchased goods stuffed into oversized purses the two were carrying. After leaving the store, the two women started heading west.
The person who drove the two women to the store then pulled up next to them, before they reportedly told the driver to keep driving. The two were then seen stopping, where they dumped some of the stolen goods into a storm drain, according to the affidavit. After dumping some of the items, the two women then met up with their driver in a hotel parking lot. Taylor has two prior shoplifting convictions in Platte and Madison Counties from 2010 and 2013 respectively. In addition to three other theft convictions, including two from Platte County in 2011 and 2012, and one in Hall County in 2014.
If you have information about Taylor’s whereabouts you can contact the Platte County Sheriff’s Office at 402-564-3229 or Crimestoppers at 402-563-4000. [Source: US92.com]
Walmart employee arrested for stealing from store
Police in Idaho Falls, Idaho, say they arrested 27-year-old Reina L. Hensley, of Shelley, on suspicion of grand theft for stealing thousands of dollars from the Walmart in Idaho Falls.
According to police reports, officers responded to Walmart for a report of an employee theft. Authorities say Hensley had stolen more than $5,000 in cash from the business since August. She also stole diapers and food. Hensley was booked into the Bonneville County Jail. [Source: Idaho State Journal]
Shoplifting suspect threatens Best Buy employees
Austin, Texas, Police are searching for a man who they say threatened Best Buy employees after he was caught shoplifting. No one was hurt in the incident and the suspect never showed a weapon, he just threatened the employees.
The suspect is approximately 30 to 40 years old and is around 5-feet-10-inches tall. Surveillance cameras caught him inside the store. If you have information, please contact the APD Robbery Tip Line at (512) 974-5092 or Crime Stoppers at 512-472-TIPS or text “Tip 103” + your message to CRIMES. [Source: KXAN.com]
Five predictions for retail in 2017
This year promises more disruption ahead as retailers try to figure out the changing shopping behaviors they see from customers who are more digitally savvy than ever. Here is Forbes take on five predictions for retail in 2017.
More AR/VR deployed
Virtual and augmented realities are often put together even though they are different experiences for the end user. But for retailers, they should consider them an either/or/and kind of opportunity, one that has the potential to engage with consumers in new ways.
Radical store reivention
Hointer is a solution provider that is helping retailers create innovative in-store experiences. In 2012, the company opened a “beta store” to showcase some of its innovations. The store focused on men’s apparel and an integrated technology/fitting room experience that was much of the talk of 2013. The company has since moved on from there, but at the time the Hointer store was radical – a complete re-envisioning of a specific retail shopping experience. Retail is ripe for another of those.
The rise of omni-channel analytics
Analytics have been around forever, but omni-channel has been a lot trickier. In talking about analytics that are omni-channel specifically, they mean analytics that take data from disparate channels and unify it into a more holistic view of performance. That means trade-area analytics that look across stores and online, behavioral analytics that understand the relationship between online and in-store behavior, shopper journey analytics no matter the path to purchase, and holistic product performance that understands the role the product plays across channels.
Analytics as a differentiator of winners in retail
Retailers’ ability to use data from all parts of their business to drive performance will separate retail winners from laggards.
In-store analytics has been a hot topic for several years but business case issues have hampered adoption. Not that it has issues in delivering a business case, but that it takes multiple internal parties coming together to agree on their piece of the value before a return can be made. Amazon doesn’t have that problem, but their action may spur more retailers to be more aggressive about in-store analytics than we’ve seen in the past.
The rise of “fuzzy product attributes
Attributes describe the characteristics of the product, most often the physical characteristics. But the future lies with what they call fuzzy product attributes – ones that are derived based on customer behavior or interactions with the products before, during, and after the purchase process.
Personalization is a clear priority for retailers, but it is in part dependent on product attributes to make it happen. Consumers browse different kinds of products, while personalization engines look at what is common among those products, and then make recommendations to new shoppers based on assumptions about what is common. That comes down to attributes about the product. Personalization can’t recognize that what is common between three pieces of apparel and two accessories is the fact that they are animal print, if “animal print” isn’t part of the product record. This limits the relevancy the personalization can achieve. [Source: Forbes.com]
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