Crombie cuts theft by 50 per cent and improves store operations

Crombie has announced a partnership with Checkpoint Systems to reduce shrinkage and improve store operations.

Crombie was experiencing high shrinkage levels on certain product lines, and approached Checkpoint to help address the problem. The need was two-fold; a solution was required to address shrinkage in stand-alone stores and concessions whilst laying the foundations for long-term plans to migrate to a combined RFID and source tagging programme.

Adrian Roe, IT Manager at Crombie explains: "We needed to address our shrinkage problem as it was eating away at our bottom line. Particularly in the current economic climate, rather than cut our budget in this area, we realised we had to invest in security to protect our margins from further erosion.

"Checkpoint Systems is a market leader in this area and has a very good global labelling network. Coupled with the fact that it also supplies one of the UK's leading department stores with its EAS technology, it made sense to enter into discussions, given that our RF labels had to be compatible with their systems for Crombie concession stores. And so far it has proven to be a prudent business decision.

"The EAS system has been installed for a number of months now and we have already seen a great improvement in our stock loss figures. One store in particular, that at one stage was recording the highest level of stock loss of them all, has already achieved a 50 per cent reduction in shrink. "added Roe.

In addition to EAS technology, Checkpoint is also supplying Crombie with the very latest version (4.1) of its CheckCountTM visitor counting Service. Previously, the retailer had little or no visibility on the number of visitors to its stores and therefore no clear idea of each outlet's trading performance in relation to potential customers.

CheckCount TM operates by automatically collecting and transferring store visitor information via a secure server into a web-hosted site for reporting and evaluation. Having installed CheckCount TM and integrated it with its stores' transactional data, Crombie can now obtain detailed analyses on the performance of its outlets and create customised customer conversion rate reports.

Roe added: "The most important reason for us choosing CheckCount TM was the fact that it can be integrated with our EPOS data to provide us with details of customer conversion rates. We needed more of an insight into our business performance and the reporting and analytical capabilities CheckCount TM offered met this requirement perfectly. Having a greater insight into visitor numbers is essential for managing and improving our overall business performance and increasing sales."

Neil Matthews, Vice President, Northern, Central and Eastern Europe was delighted to win the Crombie contract: "Adding a prestigious brand like Crombie to our client portfolio was a great coup for us, and it's satisfying to see that our systems are already delivering results.

"Investing in our EAS technology will certainly help Crombie lower its shrinkage levels and we will continue to work with them to ensure we tackle the issue effectively. At the same time, installing the CheckCount TM visitor counting Service will not only deliver specific insight into certain areas of interest but will also help to improve Crombie's overall business performance and increase profitability."

Crombie is also working with Checkpoint to create bespoke labels overprinted with its logo for both men's and women's ranges.