Every Dollar Counts When It Comes To Preventing Losses
As I was researching tonight, I found this post over at “The Power Of Retail“. It serves to illustrate two important points for the retail loss prevention professional out there:
- Sales are weaker than expected. This is due to several factors, but the fact is that none of us are really seeing huge gains this year.
- When sales are not where they were expected to be, the margin for error in shrink reduction is greatly reduced.
Our shrink budgets are based on projected sales. That means that when we aren’t hitting those projections, we must work even harder to control our losses. Every dollar saved is worth $50 in earnings (See my earlier post for an explanation), so it is possible to make up for a loss in earnings through sales with savings in shrink. The more you save, the more you earn.
This should cause us to re-prioritize. Sometimes we get so caught up in the high level areas, that we tend to let the “little things” get past us. This can’t be the case this year. The old adage about “out-selling your shrink” is fine if you’re having a stellar year, but if you are barely making budget, you have to shore up where ever you can.
This requires us, as loss prevention professionals, to re-evaluate our current strategies, and to place some focus on the small issues, too. We have to capture every dollar possible, and that means working extra hard to plug all the holes in the dam. Even a small leak can cause major damage, especially if it’s a steady stream that has been ignored for while.
With a tough holiday season this year, barely a 2% increase in retail sales, marketers are doing anything and everything this year to get shoppers to part with their money.
Best holiday ads of 2007 | The Power of Retail
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Originally published at The Bunker Blog. Please leave any comments there.