Walmart’s Shrink Announcement:
Walmart recently announced a partnership with an AI technology company (Everseen) to launch a new surveillance program focused on identifying and correcting checkout scanning errors and failures. This program known internally as “Missed Scan Detection” is another effort by key retailers in their war on shrink which adds up to over 1.3% of lost revenue according to the National Retail Federation. This partnership is more evidence that retailers are deploying aggressive and broader strategies to reduce losses, expanding from the traditional “let’s catch the thief” to checkout practices and shelf protection.
For years, most CPG companies have distanced themselves from joint shrink solutions fearing the costs associated with participating. But retailers’ emphasis to reduce waste is redefining this issue. And we at Simpactful have tangible evidence that when CPG companies and retailers join forces, they can hit the sweet spot of reducing shrink while growing sales. We believe now is the time for CPG companies and retailers to develop true partnerships to attack shrink and ensure their best shoppers don’t get penalized as they shop.
Our thinking is based on 4 simple beliefs:
- Shoppers will continue to demand a virtually “frictionless” shopping experience. And if they don’t get it, they will grab their phone.
- Retailers will continue to accelerate plans to reduce shrink (5-8% of sales on high risk products) even if some impact sales.
- CPG companies will prosper through sales growth if they invest in the right solutions that still protect shoppers’ ability to “self-select” during their trip.
By-store data especially on shrink and sales is the center of CPG/Retailer partnerships as they develop next generation solutions vs traditional “cluster” based solutions, e.g. focus on low economic stores
Simpactful has developed Retailer/CPG company shrink partnerships over the past two years that are both reducing waste and growing sales. Our approach:
- A cutting edge, by-store data system to find and fix pockets of lost sales and waste.
- Optimizing by-store product protection based on data vs “emotion of theft”. This has resulting in putting the right type of product protection in the right stores vs across traditional retailer clusters that result in both over and under protection.
- Optimizing upstream joint planning that integrates shrink insights into store merchandising at a by-store level
- Optimizing store practices that result in a more secure backroom-to-checkout process
Our results are breakthrough: In recent case studies, we are seeing +25% sales growth on products that were previously over protected while also seeing 30% shrink reductions where products are properly planned.
Jack Buller is leading our Shrink and On Shelf Availability platform. He has +20 years experience in this space and developed the Simpactful data platform and retailer/CPG joint roadmaps that are driving these partnerships and results. He has worked with countless retailers and CPG companies to drive these partnerships that benefit both.
To learn more, contact the Simpactful team today at contact@simpactful.com or 925-234-6394.
Visit www.simpactful.com
About Simpactful
Proven | Connected | Results
Meet Simpactful – a CPG/Retail consultancy firm built for today’s challenges, with a team of experienced leaders from both CPG and Retail firms.
Our experience spans functions – Sales, Marketing, Consumer Research, Human Resources, Product Supply – and all retail channels including eCommerce, Food, Drug, Mass, Club, Dollar, C Stores, and more.
