By Kristin Secreto, InComm Product Control
As a retailer, you
know all too well the doubled-edge sword of the holiday season. It’s your most
lucrative time of year but it’s also the time of year when return fraud occurs,
which cuts into your profits.
This year, you don’t have to feel the same pain. Through a
secured shared database that monitors a product’s channel history by unique
identifier, such as a serial number, you can track an individual item’s status throughout
the sales cycle, whether a transaction was completed in store or online.
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Here are just a few examples of how manufacturers and
retailers can leverage this technology to protect their businesses from return
fraud during the entire lifecycle of the product this holiday shopping season
and beyond.
On The Road
Cargo theft is an all too common occurrence that puts
inventory at risk before it even arrives at a store. Even if a manufacturer
knows the type and quantity of the product that was stolen, it can be difficult
to track missing units because of the variety of ways criminals can sell or
launder them.
Manufacturers can protect against cargo theft by logging the
individual serial numbers of lost units and sharing them with retailers and law
enforcement in a shared secure database. Retailer’s can access the same
database real-time during an attempted return so stores instantly know when a
person is trying to exchange a stolen good. With this information in hand,
retailers can decide the best course of action for recovering the lost
merchandise.
In The Store
Return fraud can happen at almost any point during a
product’s sales lifecycle, even when merchandise is still sitting on a store shelf.
As foot traffic spikes around the holidays, there’s ample opportunity for
fraudsters to take items off the shelf, march right to the return desk and
request an exchange of their “purchased” product.
With a system that tracks unique identifiers of their
inventory, retailers can determine when a specific unit arrived from the
manufacturer and when it was sold. If the product brought to the return desk isn’t
registered as a sold item, then the store can proceed to investigate whether
the consumer is attempting a fraudulent exchange.
After The Sale
Protecting against return fraud is further complicated when
fraudsters exploit promotions and return policies that differ between retailers.
By returning a purchased item at a different store, fraudsters could take
advantage of promotions or sales, ultimately allowing them to walk away without
a product and with free money or a promotional offer from the retailer.
Retailers can prevent this by informing an automated system of
the promotions and transactions which are occurring throughout the year. The database
could not only track the unique identifiers of products sold, but also the
price or promotion at which they were sold. Providing access to this
information allows stores to identify situations when a fraudster may be
attempting to secure a refund for more than what they originally paid.
When manufacturers and retailers align their supply chains,
inventory management, and point-of-sale (POS) processes with an automated
system that tracks unique identifiers, they’ll be empowered with the
information they need this holiday season to confidently process legitimate
returns while minimizing fraud.
With more than 20 years of experience in account
management in software, hardware and Internet technologies, Kristin Secreto is
the Vice President, General Manager of InComm Product Control, a product
lifecycle tracking solution that enables retailers and manufacturers to make
smart and timely decisions about product logistics, sales and returns.
Using its OmniTrace™ and ReturnFlex product tracking
technology, InComm Product Control reduces shrinkage and deters return
fraud. For more information, visit www.incommproductcontrol.com.
