BJ's Wholesale Beefs Up Loss Prevention
A large retailer like BJ's Wholesale Club has a lot of inventory to track, and part of that effort includes preventing theft or loss.
But gone are the days of relying solely on clipboards, video footage or just the watchful eyes of a manager. Advanced software is now the norm in loss prevention for big businesses like BJ's.
And it turns out the company doesn't have to search the world over for the software it needs. Its vendor is right down the street.
Watching The Store
In February, Westborough-based Micros-Retail launched its newest loss-prevention software product, called XBR Ingenium.
BJ's, one of Micros' existing customers, had been using a prior version of the XBR software, and tested the upgraded version before deploying it recently across its nearly 200 stores, Micros said in an announcement this week.
BJ's is in good company. Micros — a division of Maryland-based, publicly-traded Micros Systems — counts more than 2,000 retailers around the world as customers, including Armani Exchange, Brooks Brothers, Starbucks, Lululemon and Gucci.
BJ's has a lot to watch. Its stores carry about 7,000 unique products. In fiscal year 2011 (before it went private), BJ's had more than $2.5 billion per quarter in net sales.
XBR Ingenium will alert the asset management team at BJ's when certain events occur at a higher threshold than normal. Those events might include a cashier deleting a previous transaction, known as a "post void," or opening the register a sale hasn't occurred, a "no sale." Other potentially high-risk transactions the software keeps track of include product returns, discounts and gift cards, according to Micros.
The software is web-based, and BJ's employees can also access the software dashboard from their smart phones. It also integrates with store security cameras.
The overall effect is resolving investigations fraud or procedural errors more quickly, which saves money.
Charles Delgado, vice president of asset protection at BJ's, said the software is user-friendly.
"I am confident this will drive higher case identification and provide a strong ROI in short order," Delgado said.
Accentuating The Positive
The thought of employees stealing is a bit of a downer. But Micros software also helps retailers and food service companies reward employees who are performing well.
The software can identity top sale associates, track selling metrics and employee productivity, which companies can use to award sales bonuses or other prizes, according to Micros' website.
Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net
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