This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Michael Townsley to reflect on ECR Retail Loss’s first-ever meeting focused on benchmarking KPIs for e-commerce loss — an increasingly vital yet under-defined area of retail loss prevention.

Drawing on insights from six global retailers, they explore how different teams are measuring key metrics like acceptance rates, chargebacks, returns disputes, and fraud — often using different language to describe the same problems.

Their discussion also highlights the gap between malicious and non-malicious losses, and the importance of creating a unified framework for tracking both.

With the goal of building clear benchmarks for the industry, they highlight the need for deeper collaboration, better data, and more interventions to tackle e-commerce loss.

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This week, Colin Peacock and Professor Emmeline Taylor discuss the evolving role of security officers in retail.

And how training, integration, and investment can significantly enhance their impact - to reduce losses.

Drawing on insights from over 70 retailers and expert presentations, the discussion highlights the importance of moving beyond a more procurement-based view of hourly guarding towards one where security officers provide multiple benefits with clear KPI’s.

From customer service to crime deterrence, the pair conclude that the right training and support can transform the role of security officers into a central part of store safety and performance.

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This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor to explore how retailers are evolving their Security Operations Centres (SOCs) into powerful hubs for crime prevention, safety, and store support.

Based on insights from a benchmark study of 29 retailers and a live case study, they discuss how SOCs are being used for everything from live incident response and evidence gathering to virtual store audits and lone-worker protection. They reflect on how SOCs can help reduce losses, support staff morale, and even improve relationships with local police forces.

As the technology capabilities explode and use cases multiply, they discuss how SOCs are becoming essential tools in creating safer, more efficient, and more resilient retail operations.

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This week, Colin Peacock and Professor Emmeline Taylor zoom in on the often-overlooked issue of cash loss in retail.

They reflect on how internal theft, counterfeit currency, and operational inefficiencies all contribute to losses, and how a mix of simple process changes and smarter, tech-driven solutions are helping retailers halve their cash losses in a matter of months.

From training and cultural change to intelligent detection and exception reporting, the session offers practical steps to better manage cash loss in today’s retail landscape.

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This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Michael Townsley from Griffith University to focus on a case study: looking at one major e-commerce retailer’s journey to build a global digital loss prevention capability.

They reflect on how the smart framing of fraud as a “lost sale” helped engage multiple internal stakeholders, and how serious investment in data collection and analysis has driven impressive improvements — including a jump in order acceptance rates and millions in recovered revenue.

They also look at emerging risks like account takeovers, crypto payments, and AI-enabled scams, and how retailers must stay agile as bad actors evolve.

If improving digital loss prevention is in your remit, check out this week’s podcast.

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This week, Colin Peacock is again joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor to discuss the free to download self-assessment tool included in her Fortress Stores report.

The tool helps a multi-functional team undertake a self assessment exercise for retailers to explore for their most at-risk stores their compliance to a series of 28 key questions across the seven dimensions of her strategy.

Emmeline explains how cross-departmental collaboration, shaped by conversations which emerge from this exercise can work towards a more consistent approach to risk mitigation in the most at risk stores.

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This week, Colin Peacock and Professor Emmeline Taylor catch up to discuss the latest innovations from global retailers in protecting high-risk and high-shrink products — without sacrificing the shopper experience.

From app-based access to locked cabinets, through to creative new tagging solutions and packaging redesigns, this episode looks at how retailers are trying to reduce theft while keeping products available and sales high.

Together they explore how retailers are balancing the addition of friction, in the form of product protection measures such as nets on meat, or smart cabinets, with the requirement to deliver a low friction shopper journey experience — summarising ideas shared by over 80 retailers worldwide.

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This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor to explore how retailers are transforming store incident reporting through digital systems.

They discuss how the industry has now moved from paper based systems to digital reporting enabling more accurate, consistent, and actionable reporting of in-store incidents — from non-emergency incidents such as shoplifting or verbal abuse, through to the more serious incidents of physical violence.

They talk to how this data is being used to engage C-suite leaders, connect with police, and support store associates.

From integrating CCTV and Car Licence plates (ANPR/LPR systems, to nudging users to classify incidents correctly, the introduction of integrated digital incident reporting is transforming retailers' capability to record more incidents, more accurately, more completely, faster and at less cost.

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